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    Staff Capacity

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Game Gab
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    • TezT
      Tez Administrators @Pyrephox
      last edited by

      @Pyrephox said in Staff Capacity:

      Requiem was great in its focus, although it absolutely ran into staff capacity issues despite being single-sphere. Which goes back to, I suspect, needing to be aware of how many PCs you can comfortably support per staffer, and being willing to close the game until your staff capacity increases.

      The ratio of PCs per staffer is also going to vary based on how much administrative overhead there is. Obvious statement, maybe, but with something like Keys you can get by with a lot fewer staff than something like Arx.

      she/they

      L. B. HeuschkelL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • hellfrogH
        hellfrog
        last edited by

        i feel like the answer is just player limits. simple and disappointing, as answers often are.

        fr fr
        (she/her)

        PavelP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
        • PavelP
          Pavel @hellfrog
          last edited by

          @hellfrog Player limits and knowing your own limits. It’s super important that a game runner has the ability to take a break without having to worry about their game burning down while they’re gone.

          He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
          BE AN ADULT

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • L. B. HeuschkelL
            L. B. Heuschkel @Tez
            last edited by L. B. Heuschkel

            @Tez said in Staff Capacity:

            The ratio of PCs per staffer is also going to vary based on how much administrative overhead there is. Obvious statement, maybe, but with something like Keys you can get by with a lot fewer staff than something like Arx.

            Very much so. The more complex keeping track of plot and faction becomes, the more people you need to do it – and the more people to keep track of that.

            @Pavel said in Staff Capacity:

            @hellfrog Player limits and knowing your own limits. It’s super important that a game runner has the ability to take a break without having to worry about their game burning down while they’re gone.

            Not going to lie, I was worried when I was offline for three weeks this summer due to illness and hospitalisation. But there are three of us and the most dramatic that came out of it all was the care package some of the sweet, sweet players sent me.

            Any pronouns. Come to Chincoteague. We have ponies. http://keys.aresmush.com

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • FaradayF
              Faraday @kalakh
              last edited by Faraday

              @kalakh said in Staff Capacity:

              They’re not designed to have a bunch of PCs playing them at the same time with each other, and while that’d be a delicate balance with tabletop, it’s got to be a nightmare on a MUSH.

              With my one-and-only experience playing oWoD being a “all spheres” TTRPG campaign, I am confident in saying it’s just as impossible to balance in TT. (But among friends, imbalance can be less of an issue.)

              I think the larger issue is that TT games, by their nature, are adapted for, well, tabletop. Small groups, small GM-to-player ratio, etc. Not just the dice, but the rules, the setting, just… everything. Trying to adapt that to MUs has just never worked all that great IMHO.

              What works well on a highly-simulated computer RPG is going to be different from what works on a human-centric MU is going to be different than what works on tabletop with a central GM.

              TaikaT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
              • TaikaT
                Taika @Faraday
                last edited by

                RfK’s backend was clunky and unwieldy, coupled with systems that were incredibly hands on and very intensive in needing one on one scenes. Not just +jobs and questions answered or resources earmarked for X amount of time. I remember Becca having to spend 1-2 DAYS just doing the spreading sheeting and record keeping for 1 week’s aspirations and getting the xp out for them manually. RfK was great, but some things were just done the hard way.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • P
                  Pi
                  last edited by

                  I’ve personally found smaller staff work on games where the culture is to tend to crowdsource plot/story trajectory to players to run without a lot of staff oversight and management.

                  Definitely pros and cons to both methods. Games that want to centralize and keep a tighter leash on plot get to set the pace and keep story to what they imagined, but then it adds a gate wherein everyone has to cross to move story around, and it becomes a wait-and-stare game for staff to drop the next pieces. I’ve played on both types of games myself and experienced upsides and downsides to either style.

                  Letting players run more freely with things releases its own beasts but can free up staffers, and they can concentrate on more egregious things like responding to system mechanics, more major theme plot missteps, or creepy people creepin’.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • kalakhK
                    kalakh @SpaceKhomeini
                    last edited by

                    @SpaceKhomeini said in Staff Capacity:

                    @kalakh

                    Also OOC masquerades are often laughably dimwitted and flimsy.

                    Yeah, I see you, obvious Nosferatu. You wrote up that character at 3 am on a fucking Dennys napkin and me pretending to not know what this is makes us all a little dumber.

                    The curse of the infinite bar scene.

                    RozR 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                    • RozR
                      Roz @kalakh
                      last edited by

                      @kalakh said in Staff Capacity:

                      @SpaceKhomeini said in Staff Capacity:

                      @kalakh

                      Also OOC masquerades are often laughably dimwitted and flimsy.

                      Yeah, I see you, obvious Nosferatu. You wrote up that character at 3 am on a fucking Dennys napkin and me pretending to not know what this is makes us all a little dumber.

                      The curse of the infinite bar scene.

                      You sit down at the crowded bar next to the only other empty stool left.

                      He finds an empty table in the shadowy corner inexplicably open. He sits down and opens a book.

                      she/her | playlist

                      Third EyeT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 13
                      • Third EyeT
                        Third Eye @Roz
                        last edited by

                        @Roz

                        1 day later his player posts a MUSH peeve about being ignored in a scene.

                        The circle of life. It moves us all.

                        I want something else to get me through this
                        Semi-charmed kinda life, baby, baby
                        I want something else, I'm not listening when you say good-bye

                        She/Her or They/Them

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 6
                        • JennkrystJ
                          Jennkryst
                          last edited by

                          Ain’t nobody got time for small-chat/meeting for the first time in a bar. We already know eachother and get to ‘yes, and’ how the first couple times went.

                          Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
                          She/her

                          RozR MisterBoringM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • RozR
                            Roz @Jennkryst
                            last edited by

                            @Jennkryst Ahh yes, I see. Off-camming the first two dates so you can get right down to the TS.

                            she/her | playlist

                            CobaltC hellfrogH 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
                            • WizzW
                              Wizz
                              last edited by Wizz

                              This post is deleted!
                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • CobaltC
                                Cobalt @Roz
                                last edited by

                                @Roz said in Staff Capacity:

                                @Jennkryst Ahh yes, I see. Off-camming the first two dates so you can get right down to the TS.

                                Off-camming the initial meeting and starting the scene mid-TS.

                                Cobalt@Under the Stars
                                cob.alt@Discord
                                Cobalt#[email protected]

                                JennkrystJ 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 5
                                • JennkrystJ
                                  Jennkryst @Cobalt
                                  last edited by

                                  @Cobalt said in Staff Capacity:

                                  @Roz said in Staff Capacity:

                                  @Jennkryst Ahh yes, I see. Off-camming the first two dates so you can get right down to the TS.

                                  Off-camming the initial meeting and starting the scene mid-TS.

                                  I have skipped the TS and gone strait to the exhausted, goofy post-coital flirty time before, you don’t know me!

                                  It’s just the initial meeting clashing with my inner introvert that is the problem.

                                  Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
                                  She/her

                                  CobaltC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                  • CobaltC
                                    Cobalt @Jennkryst
                                    last edited by

                                    @Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:

                                    @Cobalt said in Staff Capacity:

                                    @Roz said in Staff Capacity:

                                    @Jennkryst Ahh yes, I see. Off-camming the first two dates so you can get right down to the TS.

                                    Off-camming the initial meeting and starting the scene mid-TS.

                                    I have skipped the TS and gone strait to the exhausted, goofy post-coital flirty time before, you don’t know me!

                                    It’s just the initial meeting clashing with my inner introvert that is the problem.

                                    App’ing a married person on a roster game so you can skip the first meeting altogether, is also a good alternative.

                                    Cobalt@Under the Stars
                                    cob.alt@Discord
                                    Cobalt#[email protected]

                                    OnceWasO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                    • OnceWasO
                                      OnceWas @Cobalt
                                      last edited by

                                      @Cobalt I just keep apping in widowers so I can go directly to the grieving process.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 8
                                      • hellfrogH
                                        hellfrog @Roz
                                        last edited by

                                        @Roz said in Staff Capacity:

                                        @Jennkryst Ahh yes, I see. Off-camming the first two dates so you can get right down to the TS.

                                        let’s get down to business
                                        to defeat
                                        those buns

                                        fr fr
                                        (she/her)

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 8
                                        • MisterBoringM
                                          MisterBoring @Jennkryst
                                          last edited by

                                          @Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:

                                          Ain’t nobody got time for small-chat/meeting for the first time in a bar.

                                          But what about all the professional barfly characters I want to play that are based on the old bar people from Shaun of the Dead?

                                          Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • R
                                            Roadspike
                                            last edited by

                                            I’m a big fan of a right-sizing the staff to the players, or the players to the staff. If you can keep getting staffers that you trust and who can work together, keep gathering in players; but if you can’t keep finding staff that you trust, limit your playerbase.

                                            I’m also a big fan of “Current Adventure” pages like we used on The Savage Skies: a page that details the current metaplot, with links to subplots or concurrently-running plots, descriptions of common allies and enemies, a map if appropriate, some plot hooks to start scenes or plots, etc. It keeps players and staff on the same page, lets players run their own scenes, and gives one place for everyone to look for information about what’s going on at the time.

                                            Formerly known as Seraphim73 (he/him)

                                            W 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 7
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