Ye Olde Arachnid Questioning Thread

[Spider Jones]

THE SPIDER BEHIND THE SCREEN

I joined ALFA in the summer of 2004, and though I had originally intended to use it as a playing outlet (I've never gotten much chance to be a player with my pencil and paper group, I'm always the DM), I became a DM almost immediately.

I infact was a proto-type PADM of sorts, I was allowed to DM prior to being a member for 30 days, as long as I was accompanied by another DM. I've been a proto-type PADM, ADM, EADM on two servers, and now HDM (though only very recently). Most of my DMing and building has occured on the BG server. I've held the DMA position once before. I've been a member of several groups within ALFA, including the Standards Team, Canon 101 instructor, and Admin staff.

Outside of ALFA I've been DMing pencil and paper games for more than a decade, most often in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (brief stints into other settings, I enjoyed Darksun and Ravenloft once in awhile). I'm somewhat of a canon guru when it comes to the Realms, though, I do make mistakes, it's always good to double-check and look things up for yourself.

I'm very easily reachable in chat or on the forums at most times, and spend a lot of time at the computer, time I can devote to the ALFA vision.

STANDARDS

I do not believe Standards should be moved from beneath DMA purview. However, I do believe that Standards has in some regards overstepped their purpose. Some issues (playable races/classes) fall under multiple platforms and should be a general Admin decision.

ALFA DM SCREEN

I'd like to consolidate the spread of rules, systems, and guidelines a DM must follow into one easy to reference document. A quick reference and guidebook for ALFA DMs, similar to the APM but with a focus on Standards and DMing in general. Anything that makes a DMs stressful and often thankless job easier is a priority as far as I am concerned.

Bring on the questions/mudslingage/bythewaypieisinferiortocake!

[Creslyn]

There have been rumors of odd animal sightings lately. They've been large, furry, have big teeth and claws, and are very, very, very fast. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?

[Dorn]

1) What do you see as the HDMs abilities with respect to:
a) awards to players outside of standards
b) major FR/ALFA canon (ie death of obuold, new tribe of uthgar formed which are regional vs shade defeated, 4e god comes along, which are global)
c) geographic construct of their server (ie overland map on one, none on the next server)


2) What do you think of cross server DMing? (ie a trip to another server you're not a 'home' DM on)

3) Do you think the number of servers should be limited until the DM corp (and to a lesser extent player) builds up to populate them?

4) Would you have a problem with a Lead Admin overruling your calls?

5) Is there anything else we should know about that day at the end of summer in highschool on the baseball team bus?

6) Why are there gnomes?

[ThinkTank]

There have been rumors of odd animal sightings lately. They've been large, furry, have big teeth and claws, and are very, very, very fast. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?

[Thangorn]

Thanks for running Spidar..

Here are my questions -:

1. What do you believe is an acceptable amount of time each week to do an effective job as DMA?

2. What do you see as the priority projects of the role and percentage of your time as DMA would you spend on those priorities? I'm interested in project outcomes here not answers like "Talking to DMs", "Meeting with other Admin". From your platform it seems Standards and Training are to be your main focus in terms of your actual workload, is there other important priorities for the DMA apart from training DMs and enforcing/maintaining standards?

3. You've focussed on a couple of pertinent issues in your platform. I wonder what your vision for ALFA is in terms of module builds, servers, players, population distribution? What's your perfect ALFA look like?

4. Do you promise adventuar?

5. Is your DMA campaign part of a mad scheme to take over the internets?

[MorbidKate]

I'll be asking this of each candidate:

Seeing that there is currently only 1 NWN2 server in ALFA and a major need for DMs with time to actually DM on that server, would you be willing to push for a temporary change in the rules and allow TSM DMs to also play on TSM, only until a 2nd NWN2 went Live?

A number of people have quietly mentioned they'd be willing to DM but not if it meant not being able to play a character at all in NWN2. Under any circumstances, are you open to the idea and if not, what plans to do have to attract DMs until more NWN2 servers go online.

Thanks.

Kate

[Spider Jones]

There have been rumors of odd animal sightings lately. They've been large, furry, have big teeth and claws, and are very, very, very fast. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?

Not this again! We've located one of these so called 'baste hears' and found it to be nothing more than a crashed weather balloon. Better luck next try.

[Spider Jones]

1) What do you see as the HDMs abilities with respect to:
a) awards to players outside of standards

Within reason such things are allowed. Quest related artifacts/magical gear. A temple lending out a holy weapon to PCs about to embark on a quest for them. Et cetera. But control in wealth MUST be maintained for balance and fairness across the board.

b) major FR/ALFA canon (ie death of obuold, new tribe of uthgar formed which are regional vs shade defeated, 4e god comes along, which are global)

Global plots and major canon changes ought to be processed through the DMA and not be changed without good reason. We ARE supposed to be a representation of the Forgotten Realms, if we are so far removed from the core that it's hardly recognizable anymore we've likely strayed too far.

c) geographic construct of their server (ie overland map on one, none on the next server)

I am fine with one server featuring an overland map and another not, variation in travel systems can keep travel from becoming the same boring trudge across every server you pass through.

2) What do you think of cross server DMing? (ie a trip to another server you're not a 'home' DM on)

Cross server DMing can be fun and rewarding for all involved, a DMing planning on cross server DMing needs to talk to the HDM of the server and get details on what areas/NPCs are off limits as far as long running plots of the servers DM base. If a DM does cross server DM on a server they then would not be able to play on that server for a period of 30 days since their last DM login there.

3) Do you think the number of servers should be limited until the DM corp (and to a lesser extent player) builds up to populate them?

Yes, and no. We need more servers so that DMs can play as well as DM, currently if you're a TSM DM you aren't going to be playing anywhere other than NWN or the OAS2 (or Beta servers). Getting more servers live should be a priority now.

4) Would you have a problem with a Lead Admin overruling your calls?

If you mean would I enjoy being overruled, no, probably not. If you're asking will I stomp off in a rage if such happens, no.

5) Is there anything else we should know about that day at the end of summer in highschool on the baseball team bus?

Ummmmmn00bery...

6) Why are there gnomes?

Because not everyone is a racist, Dorn. >:|[/quote]

[Spider Jones]

There have been rumors of odd animal sightings lately. They've been large, furry, have big teeth and claws, and are very, very, very fast. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?

No.

[Spider Jones]

1. What do you believe is an acceptable amount of time each week to do an effective job as DMA?

The position requires constant monitoring of certain facets of ALFA (delegation to Staff is a must if you don't wish brain blood). At minimum it requires checking of dozens of forums and answering several PMs and a day, probably and expenditure of at least a couple of hours.

2. What do you see as the priority projects of the role and percentage of your time as DMA would you spend on those priorities? I'm interested in project outcomes here not answers like "Talking to DMs", "Meeting with other Admin". From your platform it seems Standards and Training are to be your main focus in terms of your actual workload, is there other important priorities for the DMA apart from training DMs and enforcing/maintaining standards?

My primary goal as DMA is to try and make life easier for ALFAs DMs.

For example, last time I ran there was a problem player who was causing several DMs headaches across two servers. The HDM of one server was not available to support his DM team with logs, so I stepped in and prosecuted the individual myself dealing with Mik as PA to sort things out.

The ALFA DM screen, I hope, will make the Standards less of an intimidating spread of rules and put everything that you need at your fingertips. I'll be looking into other possible DM incentives after I get the screen in motion.

We need more DMs, we need more servers to house these DMs so that the DMs can also have somewhere to play. These are other objectives.

3. You've focussed on a couple of pertinent issues in your platform. I wonder what your vision for ALFA is in terms of module builds, servers, players, population distribution? What's your perfect ALFA look like?

Ideally, ALFA would span the whole of Faerun, featuring dozens of servers with active DM teams with a healthy respect for canon and the Realms and entertain thousands of players.

Back to reality. An ALFA that covers the Heartlands and other iconic regions, featuring a handful of well built and fully detailed and maintained servers would be a more achievable goal and one I support. Obviously we will need to control server growth, as we don't want the thin spread of ALFAs previous servers to reoccur.

4. Do you promise adventuar?

And how! Yes, I intend to DM.

5. Is your DMA campaign part of a mad scheme to take over the internets?

Honestly, yes.

[Spider Jones]

I'll be asking this of each candidate:

Seeing that there is currently only 1 NWN2 server in ALFA and a major need for DMs with time to actually DM on that server, would you be willing to push for a temporary change in the rules and allow TSM DMs to also play on TSM, only until a 2nd NWN2 went Live?

A number of people have quietly mentioned they'd be willing to DM but not if it meant not being able to play a character at all in NWN2. Under any circumstances, are you open to the idea and if not, what plans to do have to attract DMs until more NWN2 servers go online.

Thanks.

Kate

DMs cannot play on the servers they DM on, meta knowledge being one of the stronger arguments against and conflicts of interest that may arise being another.

We need more servers up, and getting those servers which are now in beta up to live status will be an immediate goal of mine. For now DMs will just have to deal with playing on those Beta servers (which will help them on the road to live and give them eventual live servers to play on) or the OAS2.

[ThinkTank]

There have been rumors of odd animal sightings lately. They've been large, furry, have big teeth and claws, and are very, very, very fast. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?

Not this again! We've located one of these so called 'baste hears' and found it to be nothing more than a crashed weather balloon. Better luck next try.

[paazin]

Good luck with your candidacy spider, a question or two that wasn't expounded upon yet;

You've been DMA before. How would you characterize your tenure when last in that position? Is there anything you would change or do differently, if elected again?

[Spider Jones]

Good luck with your candidacy spider, a question or two that wasn't expounded upon yet;

You've been DMA before. How would you characterize your tenure when last in that position? Is there anything you would change or do differently, if elected again?

Last go around I think I did pretty well. I tried to argue the positions of ALFAs DMs in the matters that came up (conflict of interest discussions with Mik, the issue with the player griefing DMs, et cetera). It was fairly stressful, I could've and should've delegated more work to others.

I made some hard decisions that didn't make everyone happy, and at least a couple of things happened that I regret. I don't see the troubles from before occuring again, and plan to stick out the whole of my term and do the best job I can for the DMs and this community.

[PensivesWetness]

There have been rumors of odd animal sightings lately. They've been large, furry, have big teeth and claws, and are very, very, very fast. Can you confirm or deny these rumors?

Not this again! We've located one of these so called 'baste hears' and found it to be nothing more than a crashed weather balloon. Better luck next try.

Fox News's 'When Bears chase deer, BigBigBig Greys chase deer, hin gets a ringu and questions of jiggy!' (23Feb05 6:00 am Local)

In Baldur's Gate, east of the city and on the bridge...

The metal and horned helmed warrior marched across the span, confident in his skills of martial combat when he spoted the running speck at the other end of the bridge, approuching fast. He stoped, watching the dashing form, a small hin clad in leathers and a deer helm, as she skidded to a complete stop, panting heavy from her magical run.

"hello, little one. Is something wrong?"

Panting hard still, the hin lifted her face plate up, exposing a tanned freckled and dirty face, flush with excitement. "Bi-Bi-BI-bigbigbigbigbigbig!" Her hands were a flurry of hand gestures, indicating something large and immence. "BigBIGBIGBIGBIGBIGBIG! It BIG! It chase deer! West, up hill flood road! BIGBIGBIGBIGBIG! BIG!"

The horn helm tilted to the left a little. "something large on the loose? Fear not, i'll deal with it. i'm merely awaiting my friends across the bridge back there."

They nodded pleasantries, the man amused, the hin still frightened from her trip from to Belegost to Baldur's Gate. She would later explain to her friend Soppi having seen intially 3 bears in various degrees of injury chase after a single deer in great Haste. That alone put the hin on heightened alert as she continued on, both for those 3 bears and later, what ever killed 3 Xvarts, leaving the small beings as smears on a hill.

But the worst was when she approuching down hill towards the road that was currently flooded from a overflowing dam east of the road. She was calmed and clearly delighted to see deer on the run, seemingly frollicing when she felt the tremors. Thuds in rapid fashion and the hin dashed out of the way of a fawn running for her life when the hin saw what gave chase: a Grey Render.

By luck or love of luck, the Beast didn't see the terrified hin in the tall grasses and as the Render stormed past, the hin made her own storming, evoking every speed enchantment she could muster in her charge to flee for safety....

So do i blame you for all the chaos i recall on BG back in the day, Oh Webhead?