I have some rather interesting ideas concerning how to staff your roleplay site, and they came from LARPing.
What is LARPing? LARPing stands for Live Action Role Playing. It is rather hard to explain to (oftentimes judgmental) non-nerds what a LARP is, but for you all, simply put, LARP is exactly as it says: a roleplay but you act it out live.
I love LARPing. It is a wide and varied social community that breeds creativity, imagination, and adventure. You get lots of physical activity and real-world skills (such as deal making, communication, and more) at the same time. There are so many benefits to LARPing...
Okay, I need to stop there. I could really go on all day about it.
Now, no LARP is perfect. Nothing is perfect really. But I did learn a lot from LARP that can be used in the online setting. After all, they are pretty much the same thing. Just that one is acted out by you in person rather than typed out on a keyboard.
My current most frequented LARP is a post-apocalypse, zombie, horror, survival LARP called "Dystopia Rising" (DR). One of the things I took away from it is the construction of their staff. This is something that I believe can be easily translated to online roleplay.
So let's talk staff!
I'm All Alone!
When To Even HAVE Staff
Is your site older than six months?
Is it still going strong?
If you answered yes to both those questions. Then congrats. You are probably eligible to have staff. But do you NEED them?
Does the site have more than 100 characters total? Yes = have staff. No = you don't need staff.
Is your daily rp time 80% taken up by adding new characters to the site pages? Yes = have staff. No = no to the staff.
Is 80% of your time spent monitoring activity, tracking plot, answering questions, and cracking down on rules? Yes = have staff. No = you have my sword, and my bow, but not staff.
Simple right?
Now that you have determined that you NEED staff, the next logical step is to go get some. Or maybe you already have a staff lined up. That is awesome, possum.
But let us REALLY look at your staff. Are they really a staff? Or do they just have fancy titles? Spot the difference!
Online Staff: ADMINS and MODS
Those Crazy, Useless Titles
The most common titles given to the staff of a site are these two: administrator (admin) and moderator (mod). Sometimes the owner/creator of the site calls themselves admin as well, or they call themselves owner.
Typically the roles go as follows:
Administrator: updates site (adds new characters/relationship updates), keeps track of rule breakers and gives warnings, may contribute to designing graphics/other aesthetics, in charge when the owner is away.
Moderators: updates site (same as above), keeps track of rule breakers and gives warnings, contributes to designing graphics/other aesthetics.
More often than not, especially on sites run by fairly new, young rp site makers, admins/mods are just the owner's rp buddies. They may or may not do the above duties as they please. Professionalism is not a requirement.
Admin and Mod are fine titles. Admin is typically seen as the owner's right hand man. If the owner is away, members will usually look for an admin to talk to before they go to a mod. But even still, admins and mods show that these members are knowledgeable of the site's going ons, can offer assistance, and can help effect change.
HOWEVER
The truth of an admin and mod's duties as described by actual non-rp websites reads pretty much the exact same.
This is a problem.
If you read my previous blog post on Site-Wide Plot, you already know that "your roleplay site is not a book". But guess what else it is not? Your typical non-rp website.
Weebly, webs, freeforums: these places were not created with rp initially in mind. They were made for companies, businesses, etc. So naturally, titles and roles are assigned with a COMPANY's interest in mind, not a roleplayer's.
Admins are fine. Mods are fine. But these cannot be the defining jobs of a site that is focused around story, plot, characters, action, drama, life, death, and imagination.
If you want to put your staff to useful work, engage them in the excitement, and get the stress off your shoulders without just creating burdens for the members willing to volunteer, then there needs to be change in how roles in staffing are dished out.
Below I will present the two staff roles used in LARP that I found most helpful.
DR Staff: MARSHALS
Because They're All About the Rules, Bout the Rules, No Trouble
A marshal is, as defined by the dictionary:
noun: a federal or municipal law officer
verb: arrange or assemble (a group of people) in order
You probably thought of one of those, right? Or maybe the other usage of the term (a military officer) came to mind. But at the very least, when you read the word "Marshal", you thought of someone in charge giving orders, or someone in charge bringing people together. Already the title used brings to mind what a Marshal's duties are.
Marshals have the following duties:
- monitor roleplay for rule breaking
- be available to answer questions concerning rules, plot, the world, etc
- see that the people are getting along despite what happens in character. Make sure people are having fun and that nothing overtly cruel, malicious, or inappropriate happens.
- keep track of the goings on of the site, staying updated on plot, character development, etc
A Care Guide to Marshals
They Like Their Rules Brushed Daily
To choose a good Marshal, a strong bond of trust must be established. If you JUST met them as a new member on your site two months ago, then they are not a good choice. They are new. They are still learning the site. You are still learning about them.
LARPs will wait about a year before allowing people to apply to become a Marshal, and even then, the person applying needs to have a current Marshal vouch for them. This is because of that trust level necessary. You are sharing deep secrets with them after all. The level of trust you give also needs to include wether or not you can trust them to keep out of character information separate of in character information, meaning they won't manipulate their characters based on this knowledge they learned.
When you have your Marshals, you need to tell them EVERYTHING. You need to tell them what the rules are, even the ones not on the page. Discuss what other things are taboos on your site that will cause rule violations. Rape in backstories might be allowed, but rape in the rp is not. Tell them this. Characters in relationships with a ten year age difference is fine, but if those characters are actually fifteen and twenty-five, that is pedophilia. Is that alright in your book? But perhaps your roleplay is in the middle ages when people only lived till their thirties, so characters are married off as young as fourteen. Set these boundaries. Start these talks. Talk of anything and everything. How do you deal with bullies? Neo-nazis? Jihadists? Maybe the members aren't this way, but perhaps they want to roleplay characters in this manner. Tell your Marshals what to do/not to do when faced with these sorts of challenges. Make sure they understand where you stand on these points.
Tell your Marshals, not just the rule details, but the plot details. Is the plot setting up for the princess to die? Tell them. Is the prophecy actually about Margaret and not Margarette? Then tell them. Then when they see certain things happening in roleplay, like Margarette suddenly getting the awesome prophesied powers, they will know that it is part of the plan established and not the member breaking rules. Of course, they may make mistakes, like stop Margarette from getting the powers, but such things can easily be cleared up by other Marshals or directly asking the owner. At least the Marshals were aware that SOMETHING was happening and that they ought to pay attention, rather than plot running in whatever direction it chooses.
The only thing they do not need to know are very potent site information (such as the grand reveal of the villain in the site wide plot) or anything relating to THEIR characters. The owner may, at their discretion, withhold information. They are the owner after all. But if you want effective Marshals, evaluate what you will let them in on.
DR Staff: STORYTELLERS
Once Upon a Never-Ending Rabbit Hole of Insanity...
A storyteller is... a person who tells stories.
Okay, do I really need a dictionary for this one?
Well, maybe I should explain a bit.
It IS important to note that the word "storyteller" is used rather than a word like "composer/author". There is a very big difference between them after all. This is because storytellers are telling a story. Not writing a story. Not creating a story. They are telling it. Storytellers in history were simply people who passed down sequences of events to the members of their community to keep tradition and history alive. Yes, they embellish a bit here and there to make it interesting. They may add in a little legend or myth that they came up with one night. But they are TELLING. Not writing/making it in full.
So let it be with your Storytellers. Their duties include:
creating major/minor plots to engage other members and characters into the fiction
add NPCs and important figures to the fiction to help craft plot
brainstorm new plot, world building, conflict, etc
be a soundboard for the owner's latest, craziest ideas
Storytellers should replace the role of "moderators". They need to be more monitored by the owner since they will directly interact with the fiction of the world. They will need to know the rules and allowances of the site on a deep level in order to craft the plot to fit the guidelines of the world, but they should not need to monitor other members to get it to work. That's a marshal's job.
A Care Guide to Storytellers
Feed Your STs. They Get Hungry.
Once you have a few people signed up for the role, train them. Storytellers need to know as much about the rules and site limitations as Marshals do. You don't need to do the whole "what to do with x member in x situation" type things, but STs do need to know what is or is not allowed in rp (ie: maybe killing off all the members is not a good idea....). Run them through how to write plots of varying sizes and how to go about presenting them to the members. Have them submit written up plots for you to look over so you can judge where they are at skill wise. How much research do they do? How well do they know the site and its fiction? Are they willing to take criticism? Are they at risk for destroying your site by going too far outside the box? These are all things to make note of. Consider the training process, not just a training, but also a kind of audition. If the errors can be corrected and the individual can be trained, then they will be a good storyteller. If it's been a month and they still can't get it right, they probably aren't a good fit.
Now, you have your Storytellers picked out. What you need to do now is feed them.
What does that mean?
Feeding your STs means that you are giving them lots to work with, tons of suggestions, and throwing plot/character drama at them to work with. They will be inventing stuff already, but the more you give them at first, the more they will have to work with. As they begin to understand their freedom, give them more.
Freedom is very important. ALWAYS listen to their ideas. Not all of their ideas will be good. Not all will be bad either. Some bad ones can be combined to form a good one. Always listen and give CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. Don't just say "No," say WHY it is a no. Are they involving too many people? Do they not really know how vampires work? A lot of these issues should be cleared up during the training/audition process, but errors will always creep up (will, not can. it's just a matter of time)
Freedom is a very terrifying concept for most rpers. Rpers are SO used to strict, tiny, confined boxes of space with which they can live and breathe. I mentioned this in the previous post, how rpers automatically default to what they have deemed safe, and they will run with only that. Why? Because it's safe. On any site, no matter its shape or form, it is perfectly safe for two characters to talk to each other, eat a meal, go for a walk, or practice a skill. The locations and details may change, but ultimately, those four things are deemed safe. Your STs are those rpers. They are coming from that mindset. Help them break out of that mindset gently. Start by handing out a list to your members (staff included) on what things are fine for them to do (also mentioned in the previous post). But for STs especially, give them lists of stuff they can use plotwise as well. The best list you can possibly give them is a little something the DR Larp calls "Wandering Threats". It is literally a book of all the creatures found in the Larp world. Storytellers send out carefully constructed plots, yes, but sometimes, to help break up the monotony and instigate players into things, they have to just create random threats. So they crack open "Wandering Threats", pick one, and run with it. Do something along those lines. Start with that. It doesn't have to be just animals/creatures in the world. It could be natural disasters from "rain shower" to "typhoon". It could be "x-location is taken over by robbers" etc. Just make sure that this list contains things you are fine with Storytellers randomly running on their own.
Give your Storytellers more information than you would ever give a member. On one roleplay site, I made a race called Angels. Not only did I say what they looked like, I wrote down HIGHLY DETAILED information on their biology, culture, religion, etc, right on down to the nitty gritty. A typical member does not HAVE to know all this, but you should definitely present it before your Storytellers. Just type it up and hand it out to them constantly. Spam their emails with floods of notes and pages of world building. The more they have to work with, the more they will work with. You never know what little thing will catch their eye that they just RUN with. It will often be the thing you least expect. This is another reason why you as an owner need to constantly be updating your site and keeping up with plot: for the benefit of your staff and members when it comes to crafting their stories and understanding the universe they live in now.
IN SUMMARY
So, is this doable? Was this helpful? Of course, you can always add new staff positions as necessary, but ALWAYS keep in mind that this is a roleplay, and the positions need to be useful to you and your roleplay. This is not a foolproof way of solving all your problems. But having a solid staff is key to managing any website. If you just have random names filling empty titles, you are no better off than you were before.
- Don't just assign yourself staff members. First ask yourself if you need them.
- Pick your staff members based on trust. Get to know them first.
- Give them duties to perform with set guidelines.
- Marshals are in charge of rules and the members in general.
- Storytellers are in charge of plot and the fiction in general.
- Help both of them to help you by sharing information. Communication is key.
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