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Staff Capacity
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@Cygnus said in Staff Capacity:
It has real potential to turn a job monkey into Planet of the Apes if you don’t put hard lines in the sand.
I agree, and think hard lines in the sand should be par for the course across the board. A lot of games I’ve watched fall apart throughout the years was mostly due to nobody putting hard lines in the sand where they needed to be.
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@Pavel said in Staff Capacity:
@Faraday said in Staff Capacity:
I still had to run most events myself
I only have my own anecdotal experience with which to remark upon this, but I believe this is due to three things (alone or in concert):
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Staff-run plots always feel more important. Whether this is owing to the prestige of a staffer running things, a perception that staff-run plots have more of an impact than player-run, something else, or some combination of these, I can’t say.
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Running things is hard, occasionally stressful, usually thankless work.
and
- Many, or at least some, people just don’t have the confidence to run things. That’s either confidence in their social adroitness, storytelling skills, or ability to concentrate and multi-task. I know that running things always triggers some sort of imposter syndrome-like sensation in me when I try my hand at it.
There’s probably a doctoral thesis in organisational psychology in trying to work out a solution to these issues.
I think 2 & 3 are very closely related. Depending on the game you’re on or the player base in it, the thankless part of running things is sometimes an optimistic outcome. Players like to complain a lot and argue a lot and when something doesn’t go their way, fits are easily thrown. It can be daunting to have to deal with when you know that if you forgot or made a mistake on one of the fifty bajillion details of the rulesets some games have, someone might rules lawyer or drama-splode all over your brand new ST hat. Most players go along and play along just fine, but it just takes that one pain in the ass to ruin your day and your ST-running experience to make you not want to try it anymore.
This is also one reason cliques form up, at least in my experience. Not to exclude people out of social superiority, but to have a safe group with people you know and trust to play in where you can feel confident that drama won’t erupt. Stranger danger is real. I know they have a bad rep, but I do see the appeal.
@Selira said in Staff Capacity:
@Pavel Regarding point one of this, I don’t know how you get around it. Player run plots often have significant lore deviation and, in games where there is a larger metaplot, need to be basically integrated back into that plot by staff. There’s always a lingering question of ‘is this really canon’?
I think that’s the point addressed by the @Roadspike practice of giving players plothooks and information on what staff has opened up for PRPs. It doesn’t just inform players on what PRPs they can run, but it lets other players know that it those PRPs are legit and canon. It also allows the staff to more easily incorporate those storylines into the metaplot so that what happens in them means something to the world around them. Too often PRPs are looked at as throwaway sessions that never connect to the other stories so they have no effect, which leads back to @Pavel 's first point on why staff end up having to run most scenes themselves, even if they open things to PRPs. Players are used to staff not taking PRPs seriously because they seem to happen in a vacuum so many don’t bother with them.
I think the root of all of this is a lack of trust between players and staff and STs on either side. A lack of trust makes it hard to feel confident to engage. Am I gonna set someone off? Am I gonna offend someone? Are these people gonna snark about me and my RP or PRP to everyone behind my back or on staff chan and kill any credibility or reputation I have built for other players to trust me? Those things. So building (or rebuilding) that trust is hard because of so many bad experiences people have had from both sides. And that’s something I don’t know how to fix.
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@Warma-Sheen said in Staff Capacity:
I think the root of all of this is a lack of trust between players and staff and STs on either side. A lack of trust makes it hard to feel confident to engage. Am I gonna set someone off? Am I gonna offend someone? Are these people gonna snark about me and my RP or PRP to everyone behind my back or on staff chan and kill any credibility or reputation I have built for other players to trust me? Those things. So building (or rebuilding) that trust is hard because of so many bad experiences people have had from both sides. And that’s something I don’t know how to fix.
This is true, but it’s also not unfixable. Not in the least. It’s not a problem unique to M*s, either.
Which means there is a lot of research (and anecdotal stories) about how to build trust with teams, and about how to do it as a leader. There are blog posts, books, and articles on the topic.
If someone is really interested in game running, I think some real curiosity aimed in that direction can teach lots of valuable things. Running a game is, for better or worse, leadership, and if you want to be good at it, there are lots of ways to learn that skill.
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@Tat said in Staff Capacity:
there are lots of ways to learn that skill
Lesson one: Leading is different to ruling.
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ONCE UPON A TIME, before I got run off of staff on Shadowrun Denver for the egregious sin of calling someone else’s rule dumb, I would statblock NPCs, give some other player the thing and basic plot guidelines, then sit in the room and babysit them while they rand the plot. And when it was done, I handed out the loot and karma instantly, instead of having them submit the +request to get it done the normal way.
Cause I was too lazy to actually run the plot and do the emits, but not so lazy I couldn’t follow the rules and make sure nobody was breaking them, and answer questions if the GM couldn’t come up with anything.
So there are totally ways for staff and players to work together. Just gotta step outside of the box.
Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
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@Tat said in Staff Capacity:
This is true, but it’s also not unfixable. Not in the least.
Trust can be fixable, but I honestly don’t think it’s the biggest of the problems @Pavel listed. Not by a long shot.
Fact is, MUs have their roots in TTRPGs, where the onus of storytelling is on the GM. Most players come to be entertained. There are a few willing to GM (and I am super grateful for them), but they’re the exception.
So fostering an environment where anyone can run stuff doesn’t necessarily lower staff’s workload if staff ends up having to run almost everything anyway.
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@Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:
Cause I was too lazy to actually run the plot and do the emits, but not so lazy I couldn’t follow the rules and make sure nobody was breaking them, and answer questions if the GM couldn’t come up with anything.
I’m totally stealing this whenever, if ever, I staff anywhere again.
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@Jennkryst On any game that uses FS3 that I’m Staff on (just one at the moment, but there have been several), I always offer to plot-runners that I’m happy to run the combat if that’s a burden to them. They can do all the plot-running and NPC-poses, and I’ll make the NPCs do what they want in the combat, handle any questions, etc. Anything Staffers can do to lower the barrier to entry for prospective GMs, because like @Faraday says, they’re the exception, and they should be given as much grace and help as possible.
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… part of it was because ‘Players cannot run a plot involving X, Y, or Z without staff approval’… because Shadowrun has some existential threats.
I solved this by handing players plots that involved stuff without them having to jump through hoops in advance, too. So like. There’s reasons folks jumped on this.
BUT ALSO keep in mind this is Shadowrun. Players had to go commit crime to earn money to pay their rent, or their apartments kicked them out. Or they had to go on plots to steal ammunition because honestly, sometimes it’s easier to steal it than it is to jump through whatever +req +roll hoops you need to acquire it from contacts.
It had a lot of tracking minutiae, so people had to be proactive about not running out of money. So people ran a lot of plots that were just like… not that thematic, because RENT IS DUE, PLEASE PAY US EACH 30,000 NUYEN TO KILL THE RATS IN YOUR BASEMENT.
Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
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@Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:
RENT IS DUE, PLEASE PAY US EACH 30,000 NUYEN TO KILL THE RATS IN YOUR BASEMENT.
How can I ever afford a suitable trenchcoat to cover my katana AND my mysterious, troubled, and brooding history, huh?
You just hate fun and it shows.
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@Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:
RENT IS DUE, PLEASE PAY US EACH 30,000 NUYEN TO KILL THE RATS IN YOUR BASEMENT.
See, my evil Shadowrun GM brain would just make those Rats incarnate high force Rat spirits.
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@OnceWas said in Staff Capacity:
@Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:
RENT IS DUE, PLEASE PAY US EACH 30,000 NUYEN TO KILL THE RATS IN YOUR BASEMENT.
How can I ever afford a suitable trenchcoat to cover my katana AND my mysterious, troubled, and brooding history, huh?
You just hate fun and it shows.
I enjoy fun. Dual-wielding machine pistols for the lulz.
@MisterBoring said in Staff Capacity:
@Jennkryst said in Staff Capacity:
RENT IS DUE, PLEASE PAY US EACH 30,000 NUYEN TO KILL THE RATS IN YOUR BASEMENT.
See, my evil Shadowrun GM brain would just make those Rats incarnate high force Rat spirits.
Nah, they were just Devil Rats. And nobody ever got sick and died and turned into a ghoul from them or anything!
Wouldn’t let people shifter, wouldn’t let people vampire, wouldn’t let people cyberzombie, stopped letting people Otaku, wouldn’t let people Bug or Toxic Shaman or Blood Mage…
AND PEOPLE SAY I’M THE ONE WHO RUINS FUN!
Mummy Pun? MUMMY PUN!
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RUINS FUN
I said that you HATE fun.
Other people, those who know you way, way better, they said that you ruin fun. Yell at them. I’m yelling for other, weirder reasons.
…I do kind of miss Shadowrun as a setting, only because I met one ST who made it a fun time for me. Normally, I’m a purist and keep my 2020 self in my 2020 box and do 2020 things, and now… well.
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@Faraday said in Staff Capacity:
Most players come to be entertained.
While I agree with the sentiment, I want to change the wording of this just a tiny bit.
Most players come to have fun. And that should absolutely include staff. It’s a game, after all, being on it should be fun. And that’s where a lot of this talk about staff capacity and limits etc, falls flat: it seems to forget that rather obvious point.
If you, game runner/player/staffer/whateverer, are not having an appreciable amount of fun then something needs to change. Fun is the whole idea.
ETA: To keep the thrust of this back with the ‘STrP vs Prp’ discussion: IF something isn’t fun, players won’t do it. Some players just always find running things fun, some players need encouragement for it to be fun, and some players will never find it fun. If you, as a game runner, can find a way to make the first two categories of player happy then you’ll get more stuff run by players.
