The Cordorian Blight ~

[Rwby]

Hi Admin Team/DM Team.

It seems like there's some sort of Plot[TM] going on in Cordor with a terrible ooze vomiting plague.
While I understand there have been some happenings [which I've missed] regarding it, in game things make it seem like it's a significant ongoing thing which has had a sizeable impact on the city state of Cordor.

Unfortunately, the real fact is that it's had -zero- affect on Cordor. The city is as cheerful and smooth running as it would be on any other day or the week, and doesn't appear different, nor work differently. I don't have enough information to be able to tell if PCs are running away with things, and what is supposed to be a non-event Cordor doesnt care about is being taken very seriously, or if the event is supposed to be taken seriously and PCs are running with it as expected, but it's not being supported.


What I guess I'm saying is, if Cordor is being affected negativity by a 'thing', it'd be nice if there was something in-game to note such, as Arelith has always been heavily based around What-you-see-is-what-you get, and the general line is if a character goes and says something and the in game evidence is there's no such thing, you're supposed to take the evidence over the character. Even just a tag-line when entering Cordor similar to the whole Amnian 7th batallion thing would be of great help.

[Diilicious]

I personally really really wish we would stop with the plague storylines, they are overdone and unbelieveably dreadful and boring. Plagues in our own history were terrible events that COULD have been prevented and had a long build up to them.

there was a plague about four weeks ago and i was like "okay plagues can happen, deal with it" but this time everyone seemed to know in advance that it was coming, and it still happened and its just completely immersionbreakingly boring. especially as people seem to want there to be a good old fashioned plague where lots of people die, despite the setting not being the same RL as the situations in which such plagues were able to happen.

It wasnt even interesting in the single player campaign, whenever theres a plague and the response to my 30th level healer cleric is "Divine magic has no effect" I just dont care anymore, couldnt give less of a hoot because if the most powerful divine healing magic in the setting doesnt work then somebody clearly ran out of idea's when making the plot and just reached for the "its incurable!!" parameter as a way to shut out any way of having an in setting ending to it..

because its the same issue i have with players wanting to have ailements for the character that any cleric past level 10 could easily fix in the blink of an eye but no no they want to have this thing that doesnt make any sense within the setting like a bad leg, or a bad shoulder or to be blind / deaf etc..

If plagues were that easy to start and spread there wouldnt even be any civilisations in the FR settings, just tribes wandering around the world

[Rwby]

Perhaps a little less emotional and a little less constructive?

I appreciate there's an awful lot of effort put into these storylines by the DM team, and what excites one group of players isn't always going to excite another one. The storyline that you most enjoy might bore me to tears, and my favourite ever moment on Arelith might annoy you to death. We have multiple DMs running multiple plots who are ever changing so there's always something new, but if they're running something we personally dislike, it's important to remember the amount of effort and time that takes for no reward.

I'd happily take whatever plots are going, my only request if they're going to be game-world affecting ones, that the game world is actually affected in some mechanical and visual way, so that those of us who miss the actual DM run event can still feel able to acknowledge and participate in the wider story.

[MissEvelyn]

I have to agree. I've been staying away from characters who would dwell in Cordor entirely recently. Just because A) If the city is plagued, they have no reason whatsoever to be there. Safety first and all that. And B) Been there, done that, and didn't enjoy it the first time around.

[Wytchee]

Plague events have a nasty habit of *affecting* everyone, more or less, while only actually involving a small handful of player characters. Sitting around wearing a facemask while waiting for more involved/"important" PCs to fix things isn't exactly fun.

A few years ago, there was an event that caused every area around Cordor to spawn only undead. The event lasted like a RL month and afforded everyone an opportunity to play it out through their characters without direct DM involvement. These are the best, imo. The "set it and forget it" events that encourage players to work together, rather than rely on/wait around for any DM involvement that is necessary to progress the plot along at all, and which, when it occurs, only results in two dozen tangentially-related characters huddled in one area talking over each other and vying for the spotlight (ugh!).

But don't take my feedback for ingratitude <3 I love that the DMs are more active now than ever. But I personally wish we'd see more "light touch" events (major kudos to Titania, btw - she's great at these!) that really encourage players to come together and work cooperatively, rather than these (rather repetitive) ones that just end up involving the same players/factions/clinics over and over again, to the exclusion of everyone else.

[Richørd]

I have to agree with the OP wholeheartedly.

In my opinion the first blight was okay. While it was annoying to literally have entire settlements on lockdown (Bendir for example)it was still awesome to have a plague-like event with real effects on the world.

This time around there was literally no risks, it felt like, and no effects on the world.

[Huschpfusch]

...It wasnt even interesting in the single player campaign, whenever theres a plague and the response to my 30th level healer cleric is "Divine magic has no effect" I just dont care anymore, couldnt give less of a hoot because if the most powerful divine healing magic in the setting doesnt work then somebody clearly ran out of idea's when making the plot and just reached for the "its incurable!!" parameter as a way to shut out any way of having an in setting ending to it..

Nah, if you can`t uggabugga-instant-cure something, it just means your cleric has to find out what his god´s enemies have been doing to immunize their pathogenic creations to your current healing-powers. Divinity in D&D settings comes in binary form, which means if there`s a god of X there is sure to be a god Y being the exact opposite of X. So there is gods who grant divine healing power you be sure there`s gods granting plague-power. Evolution and adaption - just like in real-life when bacteria grow resistance against certain medication and ppl in the medical field have to do some research... and fast.

That is why I liked the first Renor (or whatever it was called) plague-thing actually. Even if you did not participate in the story you could read up on how things were going on the message board. Stage 0 Huh, why cant I heal this thing? Stage 1 We have an epidemic sort of do this and that blah these are the symptoms blah, Stage 2 There is treatment for the initial stages of the plague, final stage still uncureable blah. etc. etc. And they locked up Winter´s rest hospital due to quarantaine status. And Earthkin village had a device to clean their well-water at some point. Oh, and there were apparently charlatans selling fake treatment...
Reminded me mucho of real-life.

Granted another disease plot so shortly after the first plague is repetitive. But when a new pathogene arrives on the scene there is so much to consider... incubation period, hygiene protocols, the way it is transmitted, morbidity, mortality, its general nature (virus, viroid, bacterium, fungus...?) I can understand that such questions and seeking answers to them may bore the hell out of certain ppl. But heck, I like that kind of stories, because it provides for possible non-violent intellectual roleplay. And also a parasite this time - that sounds like Star Trek ... or even better: Spaceballs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZUVeMtYXc

So, keep them biologically weapons coming, Dr. Villain until do-gooders find and perma-whack you or you get infected by your own creation - huzzah! >:D

...If plagues were that easy to start and spread there wouldnt even be any civilisations in the FR settings, just tribes wandering around the world

As far as I know both "plagues" are caused by a villain. So I guess a manufacturer of biological weapons would know how to start an epidemic. (Aiming for long incubation period + high morbidity + high mortality + resistance to medication).
Now fiction or real-life, you can bet as soon as an epidemic pops up in a population that population will immediately start doing countermeasures, and really fast because ppl are dying. And everyone being dead or civilisation being thrown back to stoneage is just one of 2 possible outcomes. The other one being that the pathogene-threat is overcome by new-found medication or immune system growing resistance etc. etc.
Really boils down to who is faster - the pathogene or the human wit.
Oh, and personally I just can´t wait for the first real multi-resistant-epidemic. People in the medical field are having sooo much fun with MRSA already.

[cptcuddlepants]

Plague events have a nasty habit of *affecting* everyone, more or less, while only actually involving a small handful of player characters. Sitting around wearing a facemask while waiting for more involved/"important" PCs to fix things isn't exactly fun.

A few years ago, there was an event that caused every area around Cordor to spawn only undead. The event lasted like a RL month and afforded everyone an opportunity to play it out through their characters without direct DM involvement. These are the best, imo. The "set it and forget it" events that encourage players to work together, rather than rely on/wait around for any DM involvement that is necessary to progress the plot along at all, and which, when it occurs, only results in two dozen tangentially-related characters huddled in one area talking over each other and vying for the spotlight (ugh!).

But don't take my feedback for ingratitude <3 I love that the DMs are more active now than ever. But I personally wish we'd see more "light touch" events (major kudos to Titania, btw - she's great at these!) that really encourage players to come together and work cooperatively, rather than these (rather repetitive) ones that just end up involving the same players/factions/clinics over and over again, to the exclusion of everyone else.

I've got to agree with Wytchee. Roleplay is a collaborative effort, and it's hard to collaborate if the majority of characters get corralled into being the helpless masses waiting to be saved from something they probably could've solved themselves, but can't because they're not one of the "chosen ones". It's a little disheartening when the extent of what you can do is to just do a "Deliver X" quest to the chosen ones, and then getting the proverbial (or even literal!) door slammed in your face.

The "Bendir on lockdown" stuff was pretty interesting to watch from an outsider's perspective. I just sat down outside the gate for a little while and watched interactions between travellers and visitors and guards. Not sure if there were any similar reactions from settlements this time around, though. I think Brogendenstein has a sign up about travel from Cordor being restricted, but I don't know if that's being enforced.

Ideally, with events on this scale, there should be something that everyone - from a fresh level 3 to a veteran level 30 - should be able to contribute, or something they can do to actively participate beyond huddling in terror and waiting to be saved. With plague events, the whole "contageous" aspect encourages keeping things as small as possible to avoid spreading the plague further. It's a very realistic effect of a plague, but to quote Wytchee again, sitting around waiting for the important PCs to fix everything isn't fun.

Suggestion time - for large-scale events like this, put an NPC in the world who collects certain plot-relevant items, and new plot points or similar get unlocked as more items are handed in? It would enable PC involvement without direct DM involvement, and everyone would hopefully be able to contribute, though I don't know if this would be feasible (or even possible) from a coding/mechanical point of view.

[JediMindTrix]

A plague incurable by normal healing magics... NWN OC?

[Rwby]

A plague incurable by normal healing magics... NWN OC?

And HoTU. There's the little bit with the Mirror Priest of Talona.

[DM Chiliad]

Hey there,

Thanks so much for your feedback. It really helps me gauge where the player base is as they take my plot lines and helps me adjust accordingly to make sure everyone is having a good time.

I'm sorry you didn't have a good time the first time around. Are there particular reasons as to why? Is it a lack of authority, a lack of control, or a general dislike of DM events as a whole? What do you think would make for a better and more interesting experience?

I try to keep my events under two weeks for their start to finish completion. For those of you who disliked this event, you'll be happy to know that it's just about wrapped up, and served as a segway into some world building with NPCs in the various settlements I've begun working on to help make the towns feel more 'alive'. If you weren't a fan of a crisis-event, I look forward to seeing you in my smaller and more personal events where Chiliad RPs as dirty peasants for 4 hours, the musical.


My reason for making the plague 'harder' to cure (though on it's first run about the cure was as simple as a player made mojo and getting touched by a paladin, and I think there was under 10 PCs who were infected by myself. Infection to PCs is only spread if I expressly tell someone.) -- Is because I didn't want PCs to in mass spam Greater Restoration and move on with their life. I'm a little selfish in that I really wanted there to be a sense of urgency with what's a very serious crisis going on. I felt that making the cure harder than slotting ten greater restos and spamming them on NPCs would make for a more interesting and engaging back and forth.

I hope this illuminates the reasons I made certain decisions. : ) Thank you again for your feedback. I look forward to hearing your elaboration as to how I can improve.

[The GrumpyCat]

What I guess I'm saying is, if Cordor is being affected negativity by a 'thing', it'd be nice if there was something in-game to note such, as Arelith has always been heavily based around What-you-see-is-what-you get, and the general line is if a character goes and says something and the in game evidence is there's no such thing, you're supposed to take the evidence over the character. Even just a tag-line when entering Cordor similar to the whole Amnian 7th batallion thing would be of great help.

Ah! I'd also like to quickly comment here to 'draw aside' the curtain briefly- There is a reason for the above.

Basicaly - Perminent changes, or even semi Perminent changes to the module require Dev permission. I could, for example, hoest an event where Guldorand gets burned to the ground. I could set up fires, get rid of npcs, make certain houses un-enterable or whatever. But after a reset, all of this will change to normal. The only way I can make something perminent (or at the very least, the only way I am /alowed/ to make things perminent) is by Dev agreement. And they tend to be a bit careful about making perminent changes to the server.

So things like the message from the 7th batallion - Chilliad could set up a neat message like that sure! but should there be a reset, or a crash, that message, along with any fixture changes, npcs changes, ect - will all dissapear, until Chilliad logs on again, to fix it up again.

We do occasionaly get permission to make perminent changes, but we try to keep it rare and seldom. Also because we have game balence matters to consider. Sure - it makes sense for Gerald, Griff, and Thorimand to be hiding in their rooms away for the evil plauge- but it also means new players are gonna have a difficult time starting due to the events! So there's that to consider.

And that's why sometimes it seems Cordor is running just as normal. A reset happened and Chilliad has to reset everything to how it should be (which takes time and stuff) to keep that unhealthy plauge atmoshere going!

I hope that helps!

[Queen Titania]

With both previous responses from our team in mind, a more general question: What sort of stories would you possible like to see in the future?

Also, a lot of times the same groups are involved because they want to be involved. My advice:

1: Try things! Get involved. Don't be afraid of failure.

2: If you do know of events, spread the light around, don't hog the knowledge, give others a chance to have a small spot.

[JediMindTrix]

Stories of smaller scale than involve 1 -5 players max. Whodunnit murdermysteries are pretty popular

[Wytchee]

Heya, Chiliad!

I don't think anyone is saying they dislike your event. Not at all!

Rather, we're criticizing the nature of "plague events" in general. From what I understand OOCly, there's more to this specific event than just the plague, but from a casual perspective it's difficult for any one character to lend a hand, let alone get involved directly.

IC, my character's lover/partner has lamented his inability to help with the plague, despite being an epic-level priest of Tyr. I know Shanna Waynolt's player has described similar frustrations above, despite being a level 30 Chauntean priestess, there seems little if any she can do in character.

My particular gripe with events like these has already been stated: they affect everyone, but no one seems to know what to do, how to help, or how even to get involved. If there were more /effects/ of the plague that were readily visible and treatable, like NPCs who are diseased but /could/ be cured with standard divine magic, or plague monsters in the farmlands and surrounding regions that pose a challenge but are not undefeatable to low-mid level PCs, or more far-reaching effects that players could engage with on their own time without necessarily needing yourself or other DMs present, I think it would go a long way towards assuaging these feelings of "being left out" that a lot of players feel - again, not because of the nature of your specific event, but of the nature of plague events in general.

My character has been wandering the slums trying to gauge up the situation to help, but it's difficult to gauge, as a player, the extent of the damage as I have no input from a DM. A lot of PCs feel similar, I'm sure. There's a lot of sitting on our thumbs wondering what can be done to help, but knowing on an OOC level that all we can really do is sit around and wait.

EDIT: the best advice I can give is this: the very best DM events are those that require minimal DM interaction, where the DM facilitates a story rather than directs it, and lets events play out naturally rather than leading everyone around from plot point to plot point.

Hope that helps.

With both previous responses from our team in mind, a more general question: What sort of stories would you possible like to see in the future?

Personally, I am fond of the short but personalized events that you provide, Titania. I know a lot of players I speak with feel similarly. You do them so well!

But on a larger scale, with events like these, coordination between DMs is likely necessary to ensure that there's always something going down/mobs or NPCs available to interact with/etc.

Also, please make a conscious effort to diversify and delegate tasks, if possible, to a number of different players who may feel like odd wheels among a crowd that is just speaking over one another and vying for the spotlight. I won't give names, but at the moment there's a very small group involved in this particular event despite its effects (allegedly) being far-reaching.

The most /most/ players can do is make signs warning travelers to stay out/turn back/etc.

[Aelryn Bloodmoon]

Slave Rebellions.

[Rwby]

Just to not to Grumpycat's response, I've been online for I'd say about six hours a day, every day since the start of the event, at varying different times, and I've not seen any sign of any event style thing anywhere, no notices, no NPC changes, no atmosphere, anything. So I'm not entirely certain it's the case of 'A reset ate it', which I appreciate happens and kills temporarily changes, and in particular is a super change when unsheduled crashes eat things that took a lot of time to set up.

I appreciate making changes that 'last' requires Admin Team permission. My most humble suggestion, if harsh, would be don't run events that involve, or imply, lasting changes without said Admin team approval prior, so such things don't need to be hashed out after. There's super scale for DM events that involve effects which only reasonably last till a reset, but it can cause IC/ooc difficulties when BIG THINGS[TM] happen that don't have any actual effect on the game world.


I think I'd hop on the boat of small scale events, for DM Titania's feedback. I like storylines that reoccure, so small scale events, but persistant ones? I think there's one going on in Cordor at the moment involving a spirit. It happens semi often, involves a fair amount of players, but it's low key, low impact.

It's fine if these things end with a bang and a big event, repeated big events drain the community though.

The recent Feypack breaking was a good example. Lots of little repeated DM events that created a rippling effect RP wise, [But ultimately are irrelevent on the grand scale, one person's soul is small change] and ended with a big fancy lightshow at the end everyone around can enjoy.

So a simple formula like;

1) Set the stage.
2) 2-4 weeks of little events to build up.
3) Spashy conclusion that ties up loose ends.

Events that actually have _Meaning_ like 'Amn Invades!' 'Plague!' 'Vetinari Arises from his grave' 'A secret box of Darleks that's infinately big escapes the weave and threatens to end time itself!' should occure really regularly, and [In my humble view] always have the Admin team onboard in advance so they can really make the world react to what you guys are doing.
The burning down of Wharftown is a good example of these. I really wouldn't want to see them more than once every 3-9 months.


Everyone loves a good 1 off event too! Those never fail to be popular, but I can appreciate for some DM's they're the least fun to run. Farmer Jones has lost his sheep. Plague of rats in the Nomad. You're stranded on a desert island and have to build a sailboat out of clothes.

[DM Chiliad]

Thanks for your feedback!

GrumpyCat has the right of it. When there's a reset, our 'sets' get completely washed away. With my medical complications it can be difficult for me to be around every day to reset everything promptly.

I really must encourage that as you go to investigate what the plague situation looks like, please! Send the Team a PM or some sort of signal that you're attempting to investigate. We're all very happy to help and enable your role play, but we need to be aware you're trying something to be there. If we can't make it when it at that exact moment, never fear because we'll happily set up a time and call it a date.

There's also finding parties already involved and throwing your hat in the ring with them. Where there's a will, there's a way to break into that role play. Making the attempt to reach out and get involved is the best way to get involved in an event.

Send me PMs and harass me. I love the attention.

[Dean]

Also something to note is that this story was a bit less like a terrible airborne plague and more monsters and madmen. It was resolved initially quickly and such transmission of the plague was minimal. I believe very few players, if any, were even infected. This had more to deal with monsters than disease, as well as the big boss behind the first and second plague.

[Wytchee]

A lot of my hesitation with contacting the DMs comes from years ago, when I attempted to do so and a DM responded with something along the lines of, "Players don't direct events, that's a DM's job." The ensuing conversation was essentially me being accused of pestering the DM, who was a very important person and had better things to do than accommodate my request.

And from then on I assumed it was my job to get /noticed/ rather than contact the DMs to ask to have me and my friends involved in something. The conversation left a bad taste in my mouth, granted it was several years ago back when a DM's main job was to punish you for not emoting enough while out killing werewolves.

Eh, this post is totally irrelevant to the discussion at hand, sorry.

My advice is all wrapped up in my post above: the best DM events are those that are facilitated rather than directed!

[Lunargent]

I can say that from personal experience DM Chiliad is really easy to get involved with. I requested a meeting with one of his NPCs in the Clover and he responded right away. NWN is a limited platform that requires DM attention in order to interact with the environment or NPCs, and DM Chiliad tends to be online later in the evening for US players. That's just the way it is. Maybe try asking them what's up personally before posting something that could hurt their feelings in a public forum? I can say from experience that it is hard to be a DM and put yourself out there, working hard on sets and NPCs and encounters only to have one of the players go out and discuss something like this without approaching you about it first; even if they mean the best.

DMs are people too, and it's a bit unkind to make them feel as if they must defend their work in front of everyone, inviting some other players to basically flame them.

[Wytchee]

DMs are people too, and it's a bit unkind to make them feel as if they must defend their work in front of everyone, inviting some other players to basically flame them.

Not once has this occurred in this thread, unless you're reading things differently than I am.

Events that are this wide-spread should welcome constructive criticism, I think?

[Queen Titania]

I agree with Wytchee. Constructive Criticism is totally okay, and no one's been flaming.

Slave Rebellions.

I like it.

[Lunargent]

DMs are people too, and it's a bit unkind to make them feel as if they must defend their work in front of everyone, inviting some other players to basically flame them.

Not once has this occurred in this thread, unless you're reading things differently than I am.

Events that are this wide-spread should welcome constructive criticism, I think?

uhh the very second post, and some posts which basically amount to "I don't like this" which isn't constructive. I understand the intent, like I said, it just really should have been submitted to Spyre or the DM team in a PM. You wouldn't post critiques of a player run event, or a player's RP in general; and if you wouldn't do it to a player, don't do it to a DM either. Treat it as you would if you found another player's RP to be objectionable, and submit it as a PM.

[Diilicious]

Cptcuddlepants and Wychee absolutely hit the nail on the head.

Nah, if you can`t uggabugga-instant-cure something, it just means your cleric has to find out what his god´s enemies have been doing to immunize their pathogenic creations to your current healing-powers. Divinity in D&D settings comes in binary form, which means if there`s a god of X there is sure to be a god Y being the exact opposite of X. So there is gods who grant divine healing power you be sure there`s gods granting plague-power. Evolution and adaption - just like in real-life when bacteria grow resistance against certain medication and ppl in the medical field have to do some research... and fast.

Its not about just uggabugga-instant-curing anything, its about being entirely shut out of the ability to do anything at all as others have mentioned because only specific people have been chosen to be able to cure it so even though id be quite capable of doing so im not able to, expected to, or wanted to.

also people that do these kinds of plagues in the setting spend years waiting for just the right moment when a settlement is in a position that causing a plague will have maximum effect and will hopefully spready faster than peoples ability to contain it. they do it like this because powerful divine magic CAN cure their disease in whatever form it comes so they need to use more tactics than just *cause plague, sit back and lol* in order for the plague to have any affect at all.

The difficulty should not come from whether or not the plague can be cured, but whether or not enough people have been infected to make the people that CAN cure it no longer able to. You can only cast a certain amount of spells per rest, and can only rest a certain number of times before you are just no longer able to do so.

in a city of what 3000-5000 people, you alone can not possibly hope to cure the 3000 people of the plague single handedly, the population will get nervous, sure you cured what.. 40 people of the plague, maybe gained a few followers of your faith in the process. But thats no comfort to Mister and Missus NPC watching their children die infront of them and they're going to want blood.

Thats what would have made it more interesting, but making things incurable in a setting where the gods literally walk the earth is just not believeable, however the normal NPC level characters whom are left desperately trying to survive should be absolutely up in arms rioting and stuff.

That is why I liked the first Renor (or whatever it was called) plague-thing actually. Even if you did not participate in the story you could read up on how things were going on the message board. Stage 0 Huh, why cant I heal this thing? Stage 1 We have an epidemic sort of do this and that blah these are the symptoms blah, Stage 2 There is treatment for the initial stages of the plague, final stage still uncureable blah. etc. etc. And they locked up Winter´s rest hospital due to quarantaine status. And Earthkin village had a device to clean their well-water at some point. Oh, and there were apparently charlatans selling fake treatment...

The first plague was... okay i guess, it had the benefit of being first, it still had all of the same problems as this one however.

Granted another disease plot so shortly after the first plague is repetitive. But when a new pathogene arrives on the scene there is so much to consider... incubation period, hygiene protocols, the way it is transmitted, morbidity, mortality, its general nature

but the only people that need to consider it are the very small handle of heros in the story, in a server where everyone is supposed to be on even footing it leaves a bad feeling when you're left dealing with the outcome of a story you didnt have anything to do with. Id like to believe in a setting where magic is an integral part of the universe that citys would be far more robust than they are

perma-whack you

its not possible for anybody to expect to perminently kill the one responsible, or any character really.

...If plagues were that easy to start and spread there wouldnt even be any civilisations in the FR settings, just tribes wandering around the world

Now fiction or real-life, you can bet as soon as an epidemic pops up in a population that population will immediately start doing countermeasures, and really fast because ppl are dying. And everyone being dead or civilisation being thrown back to stoneage is just one of 2 possible outcomes. The other one being that the pathogene-threat is overcome by new-found medication or immune system growing resistance etc. etc.

That is one of the major problems with the 'plague storyline' in this setting, is people expecting things to go the same way as they do in real life and have done in our history, where VAST numbers of people simply died. As you have said yourself if there is a god X then there is a god Y to counter it, meaning if somebody makes a plague there is bound to be somebody from god X to simply get rid of it as soon as it comes, you cant just suddenly say that "theres a plague!" and shut out peopel that could do something about it because its inconvenient.

people need to be made busy doing something else FIRST before you should expect your plague to do anything at all, if you've got dozens and dozens of magically capably do-gooders all just sitting around, and then a plague happens it should last no longer than minutes.

Oh, and personally I just can´t wait for the first real multi-resistant-epidemic. People in the medical field are having sooo much fun with MRSA already.

My god I can only imagine the boredem already just thinking about it.

----------------------------------

With both previous responses from our team in mind, a more general question: What sort of stories would you possible like to see in the future?

Also, a lot of times the same groups are involved because they want to be involved. My advice:

1: Try things! Get involved. Don't be afraid of failure.

2: If you do know of events, spread the light around, don't hog the knowledge, give others a chance to have a small spot.

As others have said, more personalised smaller story lines where the DM's really get to know a persons player character and its surrounding group and sets up appropriately themed stories for them which can create deeply satisfying experiences would be very much the direction I would chose if possible.