ChensSpaghetti
Space Cowboy
Like my buddy KrakenLord just said, conflict truly drives a story. While a happy festival is all well and good, unless your character gets into some sort of fight or argument there (which is also negative development), it's not really much besides everyone doing some player quest, having awkward chatter about the weather and the event, and usually some kind of prayer.
On top of that, bad events don't always mean bad development! Of course, everyone's traumatized and looking for the nearest bottle of alcohol. But there's still some positive things going on. Within hours of the event, one of my characters, who had involvement in burning down the two districts, had strengthened his relationship with someone very close to him, instead of losing her when she found out he helped kill several hundred in a terrible act of arson. On top of that, he started trusting her more, and felt a pang of guilt. Even though he's shaken up and responsible, he plans on donating medical supplies. My other character helped a traumatized friend whose apartment, filled with memories of the best times of their life, burnt down. He plans on using a good portion of the money he's going to get paid at his new job in the Bulwark Swords, as well as some of the money from a player quest item he's selling. And although this is a terrible comparison, think of September 11th, 2001. Hundreds of lives were lost, and a portion of a city had been wrecked. Everyone was traumatized, and men, women, and children across the globe were weeping for lost loved ones, or just about the tragedy in general. But at the same time, Americans all over the country, from varying ethnicities, age groups, genders, etc., all worked together and helped victims, trying to help the country recover.
The point of the paragraph above, that I think may have gotten a bit too real, was simply about that fact that negative events (which progress plot) don't always mean negative character development. People are people, they get upset, they're traumatized, they cry. But sometimes they work together and help the victims.
