PA Q&A - Tamlin

[Veilan]

So to get round two going, here are some questions. Yes, I will just recycle the same ones...

First of all, thanks for volunteering.

1) What motivates you to run for PA? Is there anything specific you hope to achieve?

2) There has recently been a proposal to scrap the level 1 requirement for the toughness feat or come up with various other alternatives to make available feats having toughness as a prerequisite. While I believe the final proposal was scrapped, I will still use this example to poke about your understanding of the PA role as well as your design philosophy.

What aspects of this do you think affect the PA? How would you handle them, what could players expect to be your goal(s) when involving yourself in such a discussion in the future?

3) To my knowledge, you are currently a DM. This is a valuable and appreciated contribution, but do you think being subject to HDM and DMA discipline could cause a conflict of interest with the role of player administrator? Do you have any thoughts on the matter how you would balance out your roles in ALFA? And do you currently play?

4) Where would you personally place your emphasis on the simulation vs. narration scale?

5) And finally... what's your scorecard ?

No copying from the former candidates replies!

Thank you & good luck.

[Tamlin]

1) What motivates you to run for PA? Is there anything specific you hope to achieve?

I joined alfa only a handful of years ago (three or four). When I first joined what made me stick was running into a fellow player who quite literally walked me around the map, explained gameplay and lore, and just rped with me (some of my first rp - I hope to say I have improved greatly since then). It made a huge impact on me, and gave me the obsession for alfa that I carry to this day. Currently we're seeing a lot of new people come in to nwn2 and I just want to be in a roll where I can help facilitate new persons coming in, and ensure that new and old residents of alfa get along and thrive together. I mostly just want to help ensure that new people coming to alfa are encouraged and have fun (and maybe to attract some of the old guard back!)

2) There has recently been a proposal to scrap the level 1 requirement for the toughness feat or come up with various other alternatives to make available feats having toughness as a prerequisite. While I believe the final proposal was scrapped, I will still use this example to poke about your understanding of the PA role as well as your design philosophy.

What aspects of this do you think affect the PA? How would you handle them, what could players expect to be your goal(s) when involving yourself in such a discussion in the future?

I was following that discussion and I think that that greatly affects the PA's role. If that did come to pass the PA would have to ensure that the new feat rules are publicized and if we agreed on allowing rerolls for old players that took toughness at level one, make sure to help facilitate that. As well, the changing of that caused a bit of controversy among dms, but I would argue that the PA's role can apply to DMs too, as they're often players, so it would just involve ensuring that all discussions remain on topic, and help facilitate agreeable discourse.

3) To my knowledge, you are currently a DM. This is a valuable and appreciated contribution, but do you think being subject to HDM and DMA discipline could cause a conflict of interest with the role of player administrator? Do you have any thoughts on the matter how you would balance out your roles in ALFA? And do you currently play?

I am currently a dm on TSM, formerly a dm on MS. I certainly see that it could cause a conflict of interest, but I believe I PA is supposed to be an unbiased moderator. If a dm has a concern about a player, it's the PA's roll to listen and understand, but also make sure that the player is not being unduly punished. I'll say right now I won't allow HDM or DMA's to push me around in my roll as PA even if that means having to give up being a DM to be a good PA. Oh! I almost forgot to say yes I am a player on BG playing in Arianna's sessions on Saturdays when I can make it. I have a low level toon on MS as well which I was trying to get some of my friends to join alfa with, but haven't been having much luck, so I may apply to dm there again someday.

4) Where would you personally place your emphasis on the simulation vs. narration scale?

I assume this is in regards to roleplay? NWN2 is, I will admit, a poor simulation. It requires narration, both in terms of the player rp, as well as dming, to continue to suspend disbelief. A lot of things don't work how the pnp works exactly, but the holes in my opinion are filled on alfa by our excellent roleplay, and excellent dming.

5) And finally... what's your scorecard ?

In alfa? 0! I haven't been dming too long and prefer to run largely rp sessions over deep hack and slash dungeons, so I haven't had the (mis)fortune of killing any players yet. I did accidentally put someone to -7 when I accidentally hit the kill switch, but that's it. In PNP when I was a new dm, and had friends new to playing I did end up killing a group of four, (TPK!) mostly due to me following the rulebook too closely, and them being new to the game, and not really excellent (the wizard blew all their spells in the first fight, they had no cleric, no frontline, and their rogue always tried to run away from every fight instead of helping). But I've come a long way since then!

I hope this answered your questions, if you have any others or any follow up questions I would be happy to answer them. I am excited to be running for this position!

[paazin]

1. What is your philosophy in handling player-vs-player disputes and how will you handle them?
2. What do you see is the role of other members of the community (DMs, moderators, other players) for resolving player disputes?

[Tamlin]

What is your philosophy in handling player-vs-player disputes and how will you handle them?

My philosophy is to find the root of the problem and discern what steps need to be taken. If it's merely a disagreement between two people it's important to get both of their statements separately and see if there's any way to find some common middle ground. If it's something more serious such as harassment or anything, I'm going to stick to the Alfa Charter and Rulebook and take the steps that are recommended there. My goal is to ensure all players can continue to play unless someone is creating a toxic enough environment that they are ruining other players games. I'll always refer back to the rulebook before making serious decisions, but my goal first and foremost is to try to talk things down and help people to get along. It might even be something small like a difference in how people roleplay, or small things that get on peoples nerves, that can be solved just by asking one of the players to not do that anymore.

What do you see is the role of other members of the community (DMs, moderators, other players) for resolving player disputes?

I think the biggest role is to ensure proper evidence is recorded of player disputes, things like logs being recorded so we can see exactly how things played out rather than arguing about hearsay. As well, dms and other players are important in every case, if other players or dms are seeing players creating a toxic environment or starting some kind of dispute it's important to let the person know that that's not cool, or if they don't feel comfortable, letting me know so I can see what's going on and try to nip it before it gets out of hand. I think one of the biggest thing is to have calm communication between people. Before things elevate to a dispute its important for players/dms/etc to talk to one another, express what the problem they see is (it might be something super small!) and see if things can be resolved without it becoming a huge deal.

[Heero]

Do you consider your leadership style firm, but fair, much in the vein of our own Veilan and former African leader Robert Mugabe?