Posted May 26, 2019, 3:25 p.m. by Gamemaster Mischief Maker (Gamemaster/Fate bringer) (Lindsay B)
Given we have new crew and a brand new sim, I’m going to re-post some of my key GM guidelines to help us all work together the easiest and make the sim as enjoyable for everyone as it can be.
A. I am a semi-free form GM. This means that I start out with a basic sim concept and flesh out the characters, places and species/cultures involved in the sim to great detail, including the beginning. This allows me a concrete structure to introduce you to the ‘world’ your characters are going to be RPing within. From there I have a very general idea of how the sim progresses and the rest depends entirely on what you all do. I won’t always know how it ends. I may have something planned roughly in the second act that either doesn’t get any attention at all or you take in an entirely different direction and that will shift later parts of the sim, sometimes dramatically. Where possible, I will go where you go, though if I need to tweak things to pull you back it’s because we’re on the verge of losing the whole crux of the sim and that’s no good for anyone. As I go, I build out the sim in more detail as well, doing my best to adapt to the action and interest. I’m not always perfect and some sims where you are bored I’ll compensate by more action in the next. But if you don’t respond to that too, I get confused about what you want. ;) Which leads me to my next point…
B. Talk to me. Email me. Message me. Whatever. If you are confused about a point, or feeling out of the loop or action, please let me know. I work really hard to make a sim that gets everyone involved, but lots of things (AWOLs, LOAs, missed sim cues) can derail plans and I may drop storylines that were intended to keep certain individuals busy. If that happens, I can revise, but I might just need to know there is a problem first. Please don’t assume I know you’re bored or frustrated. Talk to me! And more than “Where am I needed?” because that’s not always up to me. But say “I’m feeling lost/left out” and I will work with whomever I need to to fix things.
C. If you haven’t yet noticed, I mark every sim related thread with Main Sim in the title. Every time. You need to as well. Please! Help me and your fellow shipmates with this. It will save everyone a lot of grief and confusion. If you are starting a new thread for the sim (eg. you are going to do a task the captain asked you to or something), add Main Sim to the title so everyone is clear what is going on.
D. I love character development, and where I can I will include specific things within the sim to give the chance to have development for every character. Yes, even secondary ones, if they are able to be involved in the main sim. If not, it’s tricky. This obviously is a lot of work and it is entirely dependant on you! If you ignore a thread that requires your attention you might just be missing out on something I set up that could be really interesting for your character. So…
E. Read all Main Sim threads. This is one thing Cale and I are in absolute agreement with. Read all these threads and please do so before you reply. Just in case people do something that is a real pet peeve of mine and you miss important info and everyone gets confused and is acting independently rather than a team. What is that pet peeve you ask? Well…
F. Cross post your comms! Not doing so can lead to missing important info and outright confusion several posts later (especially if people aren’t taking the time to read the other threads). If you post a comm to a player/location and it is an active thread already, please copy and paste that sucker to its destination thread. Make life simple for you and your fellow players and save me a migraine or two. Okay? Thanks!
“But Linds, what if there is no active thread to cross-post into?” you may ask. Well, that’s where Point E of this post comes into play. If a player is paged in a thread and they read all the main sim threads, they should catch it, most of the time. If not, my second-to-last request and piece of advice comes into play…
G. Talk to each other! Email. Message. Talk to the CO and XO if there are problems. Whatever you need to do to communicate well, please do it. If a player has been AWOL or on LOA and is just getting back to posting, they might miss something. If they continually miss a thread, or an action they were required to take, there’s nothing wrong with dropping them an email or DM with the link to the thread saying ‘hey, just in case you missed it, you’re needed here.” Most people will appreciate the direct communication rather than silence or repeated bumping. I will do more of this myself, but if you’re all reading the threads and talking to me and each other, we should it covered.
H. BUT everything I’ve talked about is dependant on you participating. If you rarely post and don’t keep up on the reading, it’ll be really hard to find and keep your place. And it makes it less likely that I will include character specific things. Make it worth my while to do so by being present and having a defined character. Bios are really useful for me! I will ask you for more details on occasion. It’s okay if you don’t know but I like having those conversations with people and helping you think about your character more deeply.
The only other thing I ask of you is to trust me. If you’re confused and I tell you “it’ll make sense soon”, please just go with it. I’m not going to reveal the whole sim to you and sometimes you just have to have a bit of faith in the journey you’re on. For it is a journey and I thank you for letting me be a part of it.
If you have questions about any of this, please let me know.
~Linds, Your Maker of Mischief
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