I logged in to play the best MMORPG ever, Achaea, today, just planning to run some quests and chat with my citymates, but instead stumbled upon a great player-run event.

The Carnivalis Institute of Jestering (a House for members of the jester class) hosted a giant festival today, in honour of the House's 300-year anniversary. (300 in-game years equates to almost 10 real-life years. Holy cow!)

Posters announcing the festival were hung up in various prominent locations.

The CIJ has always been known for hosting games and performances and other fun, light-hearted roleplay. And they really went all-out! It was an amazing effort; the whole House must have been working on this for a long time, and a whole bunch of them turned out on the day to run things together. It was a great festival.

They took over the small city of Delos for the festival, so you could walk through the streets exploring all the different sights. There were donkeys and monkeys and other animals wandering around dressed up in strange costumes. There was also an NPC who sold brightly-colored balloons and would twist them into animal shapes for you--creating a unique little toy for you to keep. You would see the other festival-goers holding these in their hands as they walked around.

Balloon animals!

Members of the House were also hanging around personally to sell other wares though. There was a lot of specially-designed jester-themed festival food. I bought cotton candy and pastries from one House member, and a bowl of mischievite stew (claimed to be made of real mischievites--the jester novices) and a mouse skewer from another novice in the House. These folks took shifts posting themselves in prominent locations and hawked their wares, so you'd hear them occasionally wherever you were in the city. It made for a great festival atmosphere.

Another member of the House was selling silk jester hats, and little ribbons with jester-themed patterns on them. Bryony jumped at that opportunity of course, because it's already been established that she loves brightly colored, quirky clothes and accessories! She did at least stop short at buying the jester hat though.

One of the jesters hawking her wares

There was also a carousel wheel, you could ride, choosing one of eight different animals to climb onto, along with your friends, and you saw something different based on which animal you were on. I wonder who designed that--it was neat.

Riding the carousel wheel

And aside from that, there were other games, contests, and performances hosted by various members of the house, advertised by shouting so you knew when to come watch. And at the peak time of the day, a performing jester troupe went touring through all the adventurer-run cities, doing performances of magic, sleight of hand, acrobatics, and other jesterly skills. I got to see their show in Shallam with the rest of my citymates and it was really well-done. Each performance was imaginative and perfectly executed. The jester class can make colored illusions of anything they want, making them the perfect class for roleplayed performances:

Brief selections from two of the performances in Shallam. The crowd really enjoyed the show.

Phew. All in all, it was a great evening--no serious earthshattering roleplay, but tons of fun, lighthearted enjoyment. One of the great thing about MUDs like Achaea is that individual players have a much bigger role. You aren't just playing the game, you can help create it. Three cheers to all the members of the CIJ who did an amazing job of just that.