The future of RoE and the need for a DM team

[DM B]

Hello,

As you may have noticed (pun intended you dimwits!) RoE has halted - again. RL interfered again, dumping a load of work on me. I'm still swamped, but floating. So theoretically I could resume playing. But it would be slow and prone to sudden and lengthy halts. Combined with the extra effort needed for me to 'restart' every time there has been a halt...very counterproductive.

The end result is frustration for me and frustration for you. And a game that is less than it could be. Should be I mean. RoE should be nothing less than amazing.

It worked better for me when Jon was around. He helped do 2 things: He eased the workload and he helped motivate me. Both equally important. I still have Brandon - he's helped me enormously with the P&H over the turns - which is a great motivator in itself.

So I am looking for 1-2 people to help me run the game. A basic understanding of the rules is required. A basic understanding of the setting is needed. A basic understanding of what is RoE is required. But you don't need to be an expert in any field. Dedication and interest goes a long way.

I should have brought up this a long time ago, but I haven't. The reason is simple: I don't really want to lose any of my core players! To me dedicated players are worth much more as players than as DMs. That's been the reasoning. But obviously it doesn't work anymore...

So to get RoE up an running again I need 1-2 (preferably 2) people to help me run the game. They may be able to continue playing a domain depending on what tasks they take on (ref. Brandon), but if they take on the full DM role they will, at best, be allowed to run a small/fringe domain.

[X-Aerenwe/TS (Miloš)]

This is very difficult for me. As much as I would like to help RoE live and thrive, I don't know how much time I will in the near future. One thing I'm sure of is that trend of my free time will be far from flat line and far from predictable, which makes it very difficult to plan and promise anything.

How about you put up a list of tasks which you want to delegate, then we can apply for some of those. It is difficult to apply for something without knowing what you are getting yourself into and how much you will be able to keep your promises. I (and probably others) would hate to give up on playing in RoE just to find out my help is of marginal use to the DM.

That said, my exam term is ending in a couple of days and I will have more free time. Not much of it, but certainly more as it couldn't be any worse than it is now. I planned to code some stuff for my own pleasure, but I would gladly exchange that for something that would help RoE. Web is my speciality but I can also do desktop apps. Keep this in mind and contact me with ideas and I'll be happy to make an attempt. For example, I think P&H would do well with porting to a web app. Sheets are quick and nice when you need something without a lot of coding, but they look fugly, aren't very user-friendly and the more complex they are the less cross-platform they become. A web-based P&H would certainly reduce the amount of work for both DM(s) and players.

[X-Tuornen/LF (Geir)]

Do you need help running npc? Or is it the technical stuff you need done?

[X-Tuornen/LF (Geir)]

I love to play this game, so my dilemma is can I contribute something meaningfull and helpfull while still playing? In the end I will chose to change over to a DM if that is what it takes to keep the game running.

I'm no wizard with code or such, but I like role-playing NPC when I DM games with friends so some form of supporting DM role replying to mails and acting out some distant NPC would be great fun. I would see that as a form of separate game in many ways if it is far away from Tuornen. All I need are some guidelines, goals and don't-go-there borders so I don’t mess up some big story I don’t know about.

[X-Alamie/CA (Marco)]

I love to play this game, so my dilemma is can I contribute something meaningfull and helpfull while still playing? In the end I will chose to change over to a DM if that is what it takes to keep the game running.

I'm no wizard with code or such, but I like role-playing NPC when I DM games with friends so some form of supporting DM role replying to mails and acting out some distant NPC would be great fun. I would see that as a form of separate game in many ways if it is far away from Tuornen. All I need are some guidelines, goals and don't-go-there borders so I don’t mess up some big story I don’t know about.

I totally agree with Geir's proposal.

My tech knowledge is little but I'll aplly to help B to role-play minor or even major NPC

[DM B]

I need at least 1 person to help do the stuff I do, including:

- answering rules questions
- interactive actions; replying to IC emails/posts regarding wars, adventures and diplomacy
- processing some DOs
- giving me input/editorial aid with the SR

Brandon is already helping with the P&H - the amount of effort that the P&H requires from me is minimal.

[X-Brosengae [Cloene] (Linde)]

I can do that. It will be more fun for me to help running the game than play while the game is running this slow.
Plus it will give me valurable practice if I start a pbem of my own some day.

[X-Alamie/CA (Marco)]

I need at least 1 person to help do the stuff I do, including:

- interactive actions; replying to IC emails/posts regarding wars, adventures and diplomacy
- processing some DOs
- giving me input/editorial aid with the SR

I think I can  match these 3

[X-Tuornen/LF (Geir)]

I need at least 1 person to help do the stuff I do, including:

- answering rules questions
- interactive actions; replying to IC emails/posts regarding wars, adventures and diplomacy
- processing some DOs
- giving me input/editorial aid with the SR

Brandon is already helping with the P&H - the amount of effort that the P&H requires from me is minimal.

I can do this.

[X-Aerenwe/TS (Miloš)]

- answering rules questions

We can all do this. Seriously. Most of us have been around for a time. Still, from time to time, DM's final word may be required. You made the rules. No one can replace you there. Sorry.

- interactive actions; replying to IC emails/posts regarding wars, adventures and diplomacy

This is a bit more tricky. Not a good idea to let a player or his enemy roleplay his vassal, unless the vassal is charmed or dominated or something like that. You could create a thread here on the forums where you would request assistance in roleplaying NPCs. We could then apply whenever we want to help.

For example, imagine Tristan Bellamie has a diplomatic misunderstanding with his cousin, who is an NPC, and you need someone to help roleplaying the cousin. Assume I'm playing Aerenwe. I wouldn't even apply to help because I could get some information my character is not supposed to know. Someone playing far in the north would probably be ok, though.

- processing some DOs

I doubt this can be done by a player. You get to know someone's darkest secrets by looking at his DO. I'd be happy to build a web app for DOs if you want me to, though. Would be fun.

- giving me input/editorial aid with the SR

If you want to put SRs online, I can do nice stuff with html and css. Editing docs and pdfs is not my thing. Do you also need us to remind you about events in our domain we think should make it to SR? We can all do that. Also, it would be mighty nice if someone could make the SR looks like a newspaper, like what we had in those older PBeMs in the previous decade and... well... in the previous century, damn I'm old

[X-Tuornen/LF (Geir)]

On role-playing NPC I would think only minor players should do this, and only with NPC that are sufficiently far removed from their own main characters. Still then there could be events in the future that would close this distance between characters so this would be a difficult system. And naturally only one person should ever act the role of a particular NPC, any secrets or lack off must be guarded carefully.
Maybe this is impossible. Then maybe the next solution would be to have sub-DMs that only play NPC. Could be fun, but I would miss not to able to invest in one realm over time.

[X-Bellam & BC/TB (Bobby)]

I need at least 1 person to help do the stuff I do, including:

- answering rules questions
- interactive actions; replying to IC emails/posts regarding wars, adventures and diplomacy
- processing some DOs
- giving me input/editorial aid with the SR

Brandon is already helping with the P&H - the amount of effort that the P&H requires from me is minimal.

I'm guessing the biggest chunk of that role is going to be dealing with player actions and NPC diplomacy.  Reading and writing my own diplomatic correspondences takes up a startling amount of time already - I can't imagine things from your end, Bjorn.

Answering rules questions is something a lot of us could do, as Milos says, and working on the SR should be completely doable.  I'd be more than happy to take that responsibility on, as would others, I think.  The DO's would be trickier to do with an active player, though.  As we're seeing this turn intervening in Aerenwe, even players widely separated in area and activity can wind up interacting heavily.  Similarly for interactive actions.  I'd like to say you could use active players to take the load off of you without losing them as players... but I think what you really need is a dedicated assistant DM.  Possibly an assistant AND have one or more of the active players do supporting work, but you need someone committed to the role that you could give anything to without worrying about whether it'll damage the game. 

I'd be willing to take that role on if need be.  I'd hate to give up Tristan, especially now, but I'd hate to see the game falter even more.  Obviously, there's several of us who feel that way.  I guess the biggest question I have is how much time do you need from an assistant?  How much time each week do you spend on this game when it's running properly?  In other words, what would we be committing ourselves to?

[DM B]

Time use: Not something I've actually measured. It varies enormously. Sometimes, when I'm having fun, there is lots of interaction AND I feel like developing additional stuff...I don't know...20 hours a week? 30? More?

But on average, when the game is actively running, I may be using 1-2 hours a day to keep things going. Some days less (or nothing) other days more. DO processing requires more time, as does writing the new SR. Which is why I usually add a spell of doing little the week after a new turn launches.

Adding more stuff - maps, domain descriptions, Regent Guide etc. is in addition to this.

Also in addition is time spent on engaging interactive actions: Sometimes there is a diplomacy or adventure or whatnot that COULD be solved with a few short sentences, but I elect to spend more time on it because its fun. Been less of that lately.

[X-Ghieste & HOT/GH (Matt)]

I would be loathe to give up playing the paragon of virtue and honour that is Ghorien, but not as loathe as I would be to see the game wind down. So same as Bobby really for me. If you need it you have the offer.

[X-Haelyn's Aegis/RK (Andy)]

- interactive actions; replying to IC emails/posts regarding wars, adventures and diplomacy
- processing some DOs

I'd expect that I could divorce myself from HA if I assisted in either, but the issue is not just to be independent, it is to be seen as independent.

An existing player turning junior DM solves the problem (assuming that they can hack it), having a player from the other end of Anuire to play the NPC/sort the DO may solve the problem but does nothing for the perception of a problem.  More importantly it means that central domains are excluded and in practice only the players of more isolated domains can assist.  Those players however can only help "at the other end", and presumably choose their realm in part due to it's low interactivity meeting there time/etc needs.

Since I enjoy DMing even in the absence of players, and I play a peripheral realm which is mainly re-active, much as I enjoy HA I'd swap if you wanted to try me.

In terms of time I've spent 20+ hours a week on HA fairly often during active phases of the game, so if you wanted to try me out co-DMing time wouldn't be an issue in the near future.  I'm likely - well, near certain - to leave my current employment at the end of the year however and I have no idea where I'm going to go next, I would however expect to be able to devote around 10 hours a week minimum.

- giving me input/editorial aid with the SR

That should be relatively simple for any of us to help with - as its a public document it sounds more like a 'player plus' role rather than a 'dm-type' role though.

Also, it would be mighty nice if someone could make the SR looks like a newspaper, like what we had in those older PBeMs in the previous decade and... well... in the previous century, damn I'm old

It is worse than that Milos, it's last millennium.