Castano’s DMA Platform April 2013

[Ithildur]

I've always understood one of the DMA's most important jobs is doing what it takes to help facilitate ALFA having a solid crop of competent, inspired, and motivated DMs.

If you don't mind I'd like to see your thoughts on this laid out, with perhaps ideas on recruiting new DMs along with their training, feeding, grooming, and care. I personally have some concerns that there's been a dropoff of DMing standards in ALFA, some of which is inevitable when you have guys like Ronan or OGR no longer actively DMing and the ranks being shored up by people who are completely unfamiliar with ALFA/NWN/DnD being inadequately trained and thrown to the sharks. On top of that even the best can get discouraged, frustrated or uninspired whether it's due to the client/other mechanical/technical reasons or problem players, etc; to me this is an area that needs to be the highest priority.

[Castano]

I've always understood one of the DMA's most important jobs is doing what it takes to help facilitate ALFA having a solid crop of competent, inspired, and motivated DMs.

I've always encouraged any member to DM here, even people I do not personally get along with. I think cloud's training sessions that she runs for DMs are a very good way to make sure our applicants can get up to speed. I also think mentoring for those starting out and teaming up to help an experienced DM run a more complex plot are the ways to handle this. You learn by doing. I would keep the PDM status as a training mode for the first month of anyone who has never DM'd NWN2 before.

ALFA is not a paid gaming platform, so anyone expecting a "professional" standard 100% of the time as opposed to a table top type experience should reconsider their expectations - we need to help our new DMs become better in a constructive manner. That's a long winded way of saying we have DMs of different skill levels and styles who are progressing to becoming better and that is a good thing because it shows growth.

That said we do not want craziness so in a worst case scenario I would not feel bad about sending someone back for more training or curtailing their ability to solo DM, however I have personally never seen anything in 9 years here that would require that level of management so I would say I am very tolerant of different styles of DMing. The players have the ultimate choice of who they play with at the end.

[Castano]

You been very angry lately and haven't spoken highly about the playerbase. Will you use this role to change alfa just to get your way done or to make alfa better? Not a troll question, I am actually serious.

Answer: I will use this role to make ALFA better, there's no my way, only consensus. If I had my way we'd play off the red box game. Obviously that won't fly here . My support of PrCs despite the fact I personally hate what I call player class "spam" in DnD should tell you this.

Yes I have been upset at times about things. My statements have been limited to specific instances of bad behavior that I feared were at risk of spreading, not to the playerbase as a whole. The vast majority of our members are cool.

This is my list of behaviors I think we as a community need to address. If I got mad about item 1 below it's because I care about what we have built here in the past 15 years and hate to see it torn apart.

1) PKing and other bad behavior, being screamed at and cursed at in irc by the "victims" of various admin and HDM actions due to either a perma-ban or compromise rulings they tried to ignore greatly frustrated me over the past year. Especially where we all bent over backwards to keep the member in ALFA. That's who irked me the most here, especially at the end of this summer. I'm not alone in being so treated either . Two of the people who did this are no longer here. There are like 4 other highly populated nwn2 games these people could play in.

2) The way a minority of players treat DMs in game. Do not flood their channels with piles of repeated tells demanding healing or loot. It's not cool. I do not care if you have some personality issue that makes you unable to hold your fingers off carriage return when using /t, please restrain yourselves - it makes the DM feel you do not trust them to run the game, in which case why did you show up for the session? DMs are busy, and they are smart enough to play their part in our game..often they have actually left you the healing pots and items you need up ahead and having to shut someone up by revealing that spoils the game. Also do not expect DMs to reveal the outcome of future actions to you, unless they would be obvious --- as in obvious death is obvious.

3) Stop filing complaints against each other all the time. The complaint process is so out of hand it resulted in changes to the CvC rule we had for 14 years here solely because of that.

4) Overuse of meta info when RPing - we need to be careful in smaller community to try and avoid this. With as many DMs as we have we know the inner details of each others' PCs, their levels, their hitpoints, probable AC and magic items too much now.

5) Farming to level. I love you guys, but we've had to shave XP off PCs several times now. You all know who you are . Again I love you guys, but please proactively ask a DM to curtail your XP if you are gonna be online 24/7 for a month long ALFA festival in which you reach lvl 6 in record time. Moderated leveling is one of the core features of ALFA.

[Castano]

Rorax: You guys (or one of you) were only server banned for a week to let a CvC situation cool off. I think it was only one of you. One or more of you then cursed me out for it in irc. Then you guys got even more upset and said you were never coming back etc. I said fine.

That's the gist of it. Since you brought it up I addressed it. You're still a DM here and I won't be hunting after you guys if I am elected DMA - I have better stuff to try to get done in 6 months. That's all you need to know.

[Curmudgeon]

First, let me thank the candidates for stepping up to take a turn in the barrel. You'll not learn what that entails until after you're elected. I'm a bit slow in posting these questions, but please bear with me as I've had a nasty cold since last Sunday.

1. ALFA can always use more DMs. As DMA, how do you plan to find us more qualified DMs? How would you allocate them?

2. We currently have four Live servers: Silver Marches, Baldur's Gate, Moonshaes, and Western Heartlands. Do we need any more servers? Fewer?

3. ALFA Pillar #1 states: "ALFA uses Dungeons & Dragons ("D&D")." Many members take this to mean that our rule system must be as close to the D&D (3.5 Edition) rules as is technically feasible. However, D&D is a game designed around the concept of a single Dungeon Master running sessions with a small group of players on an episodic basis. ALFA servers are online 24/7. Our players can log in at any time, and more often than not, without a DM.

A. How does this fundamental difference between ALFA and D&D change the game? What adjustments to the rules do we need to adopt in order to keep the game interesting, fun, challenging, and yet fair?

B. There are dozens of D&D sourcebooks published. Every DM chooses which books they will use to run their game sessions, and a good DM makes his or her selection clear to the players. ALFA has the further restriction that our servers are a part of the Forgotten Realms setting. Which books should we base our rules and systems on? How do we assure continuity and fairness for all ALFA players on all ALFA servers? How do we ensure DMs are all using the same rules?

C. What changes would you like to see in the ALFA Core Rules?

4. In ALFA we use at least two different systems of timekeeping: Narrative Time, in which we assume that time passes in ALFA's part of the Realms at the same rate as in our everyday lives; and Game Time, in which time spent in-game passes much faster. How do we reconcile this disparity, yet maintain a fair and enjoyable experience for all our players?


I look forward to your answers.

I will also pledge my support to the winning candidate. May the gods smile on you all.

[Castano]

Thank you for supporting all of us Curm. On to the questions:

1. ALFA can always use more DMs. As DMA, how do you plan to find us more qualified DMs? How would you allocate them?

This is first a volunteer project. I cannot make people be DMs, I can however encourage, offer support and training to members who wish to DM, meet our standards and can find an HDM to sponsor them onto a server or wants to throw their name out there for an HDM to pick up.

On allocation: I think the current method is working well. For those who do not know it, basically anyone who applies and is approved can choose their server or specify "any server" Out of the any server group I would assign those applciants on an as needed basis with the approval of the HDM of that server. Those who apply for a particular server would be assigned to that server assuming they have HDM approval. If not and I still think they are a good candidate and want to DM another server I would offer them up to the other HDMs. usually there is no issue because those seekign a specific server have alreayd spoken to that server's HDM. I encourage applicants to continue to do so so that the applciation process remains fast and efficient.

2. We currently have four Live servers: Silver Marches, Baldur's Gate, Moonshaes, and Western Heartlands. Do we need any more servers? Fewer?

I think Amn could be added. I agree with Ronan's view that empty servers are not a bad thing. They are there to be used for whatever plots our DMs cook up. I would like to see more cross server quests, in line with what Rumple is doing by moving his group around. I expect to reconsider certain rules (e.g. the 30 day no DM/play to make this happen more easily.

3. ALFA Pillar #1 states: "ALFA uses Dungeons & Dragons ("D&D")." Many members take this to mean that our rule system must be as close to the D&D (3.5 Edition) rules as is technically feasible. However, D&D is a game designed around the concept of a single Dungeon Master running sessions with a small group of players on an episodic basis. ALFA servers are online 24/7. Our players can log in at any time, and more often than not, without a DM.

A. How does this fundamental difference between ALFA and D&D change the game? What adjustments to the rules do we need to adopt in order to keep the game interesting, fun, challenging, and yet fair?

The PW aspect has created major issues in game with respect to static spawns being present constantly despite being cleared out on a weekly basis, the time passage while RPing, random meetings between PCs vs NPCs and I could go on... One of the adjustments we use is to suspend certain things - like we never pretend we had a week long conversation with a PC despite the sun zipping by, the orcs in cave 1 that I cleared last week happened instead in the distant past etc. So we are treating the game world as if it is a PnP in some regards and a PW when the DMs are not there or we are fighting a spawn area for the 5th time in a game year. I don't believe you get rid of these fundamental discrepancies without removing alot of content and creating a very monster-less and quest-less world that depends solely on DMs. I would not advocate such - we need to be happy with the "slightly bad marriage" we have between PW and DM'd campaign.

Rule adjustments: Time passage could be adjusted, pending testing and approval by admin. I've already suggested we try it. Spawns in areas could be more varied in trms of species, but this is not a rule simply a builder/tech issue - though I like the fact a few peopel who really know their stuff came onto MS and did this for us, and would like to see volunteers handle each of the servers with HDM approval.


B. There are dozens of D&D sourcebooks published. Every DM chooses which books they will use to run their game sessions, and a good DM makes his or her selection clear to the players. ALFA has the further restriction that our servers are a part of the Forgotten Realms setting. Which books should we base our rules and systems on? How do we assure continuity and fairness for all ALFA players on all ALFA servers? How do we ensure DMs are all using the same rules?

FRCS (not 4E) is the basic source for content. For the mechanics we should use 3.5e as we have been. Faiths and Pantheons is useful for divine classes. Other books can be used at discretion so long as they do not override the 2 sources. So for example as an NPC/monster you could add something from another book, so long as that book was set in FR (no Ebberron stuff for example), but I would not approve of it being a playable race (at least not without seroius debate amongst admin/standards and the larger community).

I think our DMs have largely been using the same rules. So laying out 3.5e PHB and DMG as the mechanics rules (as we have) should settle that question.

C. What changes would you like to see in the ALFA Core Rules?

I'd like to discuss relaxing Rule 8.1's 30 day period depending on the activity of the DM's PC on the server. A PC that has not been played in ages should not force a DM to wait 30 days to take a group cross server. Perhaps we could appoint a group of experienced DMs as cross server DMs, approved by HDMs on two or more servers, who are subject to a reduced version of the rule.
I'd like to expand the crafting automation to up to +2 skill point wondrous items for a test period. So far potions, scrolls and wands have worked well (at least there are no raging complaints) and have taken the load off our DMs.
I'd like to drop password on one volunteer server and actively use it to recruit (with a level 3 cap for prospects). Sadly Open MS occurred the month Gamespy killed NWN2 off. It was also not open-ended, so the advertising did not have a chance to take root. Something like this needs to be available 24/7 365 days a year. I think with the level 3 cap we'd encourage buy in and membership applications. Consistent advertising on DnD boards would help publicize this. If there are issues we will retconn ass-hattery. If it gets out of hand, we can always end the period.

4. In ALFA we use at least two different systems of timekeeping: Narrative Time, in which we assume that time passes in ALFA's part of the Realms at the same rate as in our everyday lives; and Game Time, in which time spent in-game passes much faster. How do we reconcile this disparity, yet maintain a fair and enjoyable experience for all our players?

I think the recent proposal put forward should be tested ALFA-wide for a 30 day period for its effects on spells and RP. Until someone comes up with a work around that allows for the environment to run on one time system and the spell mechanics another, we're going to be stuck with compromises.

[kid]

I've a question, might seem trollish, or too plain, but im actualy curious.
With life and all its hassles, why the hell do you even want this job?

[Rumple C]

Voting has begun.

http://www.alandfaraway.org/phpBB3/view ... 74&t=49383

[Castano]

I've a question, might seem trollish, or too plain, but im actualy curious.
With life and all its hassles, why the hell do you even want this job?

Because I want this place to continue to be a great gaming community, I have a lot of time invested in ALFA.

[Ithildur]

Castano, I have to admit, I have very real concerns about the time required to juggle being both a present, active, committed HDM of a live server and DMA simultaneously, especially for a person who is also a lawyer in RL... Curm attempted to do the best job he could for quite a long time doing just that, juggling 3+ hats, but especially when RL got busy for him there were times it seemed like things with ALFA would get tied/bogged down due to simple time constraints, and his roles as both HDM and DMA at times suffered at least in the view of some. It can be tricky enough with just one position; is this going to work out with your RL responsibilities, being HDM, AND DMA?

Honestly if it were me, I'd probably say HDMs should not double in any admin position, especially the one of DMA; aside from the issue of time, that's also quite a bit of power/influence vested into a single individual.

Could you respond to these concerns?

[Castano]

The summer is a slow period for me, I should not have any issue handling both the policy work that the DMA does and keeping MS running, especially with the great team I have on MS. I've been doing a lot of policy work as it is, without decision making powers, as people would be able to see from the HDM forum if they could see it . I'll enlist the help of others onto the DMA staff too as they volunteer. I tend to make decisions faster too, so on DM apps and other areas where a decision needs to be completed within a week I'll get it done.

[Rumple C]

Be careful what you wish for...

Congrats!

[danielmn]

Congratulations!!! Thanks to both you, and Thorin, for stepping up for the position, and having a good run of it.

[Castano]

Thanks to Dan and Thorin for running, we had a lot of good ideas put forward