Planning and carrying out a player run server wide quest is not really that difficult and can be lots and lots of fun. The following is a step by step system that has worked very consistently for me. I have personally created and run a number of server-wide events and they all have been well attended as well as a great amount of fun. So here goes:

#1 Develop the premise or motivation behind the event.
This is your idea! It can be almost anything as long as it sounds like fun. If you are in a guild or have friends that adventure with you, run your ideas by them. They probably will come up with more stuff or problems with the event. Its best to keep things as simple as possible. A very complex plot may turn people away. If the plot is a long complex thing you may want to break it up into smaller events over a number of days or weeks. Plan on each event taking less then three hours. Two hours is best. If you are prepared you can kick things off on time.

#2 Write it up!
Yes this is one of the most important aspects of running a shard-wide event. A good exciting write up of your event will spur interest and participation. Here too, it is good to have others look over your work. They may find problems with your writing and be glad to edit it for you. You may not need it but it's good to have others get involved at this point.

#3 Recruit help.
It is important to have reliable help for your event. Plan your event such that only a few people are needed to run the whole event. If you get more help that's great but make sure you can run the event with the staff you have.

#4 Decide on the day and time of the event.
Of course your staff may have input on when they can help out, so work with them. I personally like weeknights starting at 8:30 pm and finishing up by 11 pm or so. This is plenty of time to run an event. If your event needs more time then you probably are trying to do to much in one night. If you're having a party at the end of an event then arrange for someone to hang out until people go home.

#5 Advertise your event!
Yup! Advertising works! Companies spend millions on it so have faith in it. To advertise take your well written event and post it on the appropriate game message boards and our guild boards. I recommend advertising 10 or so days in advance. Five days for a guild only event. Okay, so you have covered the main news outlets. Well you're not finished. Look up some of the guilds on your server. All the large guilds usually have web sites and message boards. Select 3 or 4 larger guilds that would have people geared towards your event and post an invitation to participate in the event a week to three or four days in advance. That should do it.

#6 The Event!
Create an open chat channel for the event! This is important so that you can talk to others and coordinate the event if need be. So, wow, 50+ people showed up. Now what?! Well if there are instructions to be given or a speech to be given have it set up as macros. I love pep rallies; it pumps people up and if they are cheering at the right places then you know you have their attention. Mostly, be ready! Have helpers if needed and go for it. Let everyone rock and roll. Remember it's a server-wide event, well-advertised, anything can happen and probably will. Don't get flustered, go with the flow. Have a good time, you’ve done a lot to get to this point so don't get upset about things. I have even been PK'd on one of the events that I was running. Lucky for me a few guild buddies were helping out informally (just showed up for the event, wrong I knew they were coming.); they scared of the PKs and resurrected me! I collected my stuff and pushed on. It was an experience! The more events you hold, the more popular they will become and the more interesting they will be. Don't be surprised if you events grow to well over 50+. Lastly, enjoy your event, you earned it.

#7 The events is over but your job is not done.
Advertisement is the best thing in the world. To complete your server-wide event, you need to publish the results. Write up a short essay of what happened on your quest or adventure. Screenshots help out a lot! If you can, take a few pictures and use them to show all the people doing whatever was going on. Pictures say more than words. Submit your recap event to the places you promoted the event even if people did not attend from there.  Maybe next time they will after all see is believing.

#8 Your done!
Wow. Hope it was fun. Get busy on that next one!

Written By Jaxs
Edited by Marduk