NMCF 6 - Character and Community Management

Character Tips

(Coming soon.)
 

Community Management

Being the Night Monarch is a leadership position. By definition, you get to join what is effectively the GoT Board of Directors for two and a half years — the year of your reign, and the year following, to help support and mentor your successor. And you will be invited to join meetings and consulted on your opinion and plans before the official start of your term, too, beginning with your election at the end of July.
  Recently, Sable has begun to ask potential candidates if they have any community leadership experience, because it helps. That said, GoT is often a good place to learn those skills if you don't already have them, so if you don't, that's not a deal breaker!
  However, be aware that it takes skills. If you have not done it before, you don't really know what you're getting into. You can lean on Sable and the other House Leaders to help and advise you, as well as your team. But understand that at least in part, you are in charge, and you will not be able to avoid that entirely.
 

The Duties of Leadership

When you're in charge, that means that everything is your responsibility. You don't have to do it all, but it's your job to see it gets done. That being said, being in charge doesn't mean you have to know everything — it means you have to know who does.

— Sable

  Some of the duties of leadership have probably become obvious to you. You have seen the Night Monarch and the House Leaders making plans, setting policies, adjudicating the Game, and managing the massive amount of volunteer effort it takes to make this crazy thing work. You have seen that they tend to be the driving force behind the GoT Lore and overall storyline, and this, no doubt, is part of why you wanted the job. We're looking forward to whatever you can bring to the table!
  But there are also a lot of things that we do that go on behind the scenes, and some of them can be boring or irksome. You probably know that too, because we choose to be as transparent as we can be. We don't see ourselves as executives. We see ourselves as foremen, the people who direct the work but are also on the factory floor doing it, just like everybody else.
  As one of the leadership team, whom are known as "the Organizers," your job is to see that all the other jobs get done. For the most part, that involves community management and delegation. But if nobody else can or will do it, and the job still must be done, doing it is your job. And that might also mean finding new and better ways of doing things, or figuring out ways to do without them.
 

A Note About Our Community

Our community is small and close. However, it is also an international community, with a variety of cultural backgrounds, religious and political leanings, and different walks of life. It includes all ages. It includes every stripe on the rainbow spectrum, and a lot of people who are disabled or neurodiverse. Conflict management can be tricky, even with the other House Leaders, whom you should view as colleagues and teammates who will work with you to tell the story and manage the Game.
  Sometimes, you will have to exchange hats — your friendship hat, and your boss hat. If people are used to dealing with you with one hat, they often won't like it if you switch to another one, even if they expect it. Sable has had more than one argument with more than one House Leader when she puts the boss hat on, and she expects you will argue with her, too.
 

Working with Your Fellow Organizers

Our team is a mix of "old blood" and "new blood." The Night Monarch is elected, and the House Leaders are appointed. We feel that this leads to a dynamic mix of creativity that still stays grounded, and again, we really want your fresh ideas and contributions!
  That said, sometimes this leads to tension. If you are proactive, creative, and assertive, you're sometimes going to run into what feels like a wall of resistance when you want to make changes.
  Sometimes this is reactionary. Change can be challenging. It's not uncommon for a new idea to be met with initial resistance by the existing team. But if you feel strongly about it, advocate for it with reasoned arguments and a calm demeanour. Don't get into a power struggle. Your fellow Organizers are sensible people who are all writers, too, which means they can think creatively and consider the consequences of an action. If it's a good idea, they will usually come around.
  However, many of the team members have been doing this for several years, now. Sometimes, they know your idea isn't going to work, because their experience has taught them this. This likely has nothing to do with the merit of the idea! It's more likely because people are complicated, and as sensible as the idea is, it broke down somewhere along the way in execution.
  The team might be willing to try it again, though, because the conditions may be different. However, they might not. We advise you to pick your battles. Somehow, this thing, despite not being perfect, has hobbled along for several years, so clearly, some things are working and don't need to be fixed. But there is always room for improvement, too, so if you feel strongly that something isn't working, we want to know and if we can, make it better.
 

Communication

The Organizer team expects active communication and engagement from its members, during events especially, but also in the off-season. None of this can happen without regular planning! At bare minimum in the off-season, we expect you to check the House Leaders channel and any relevant House or planning channel you are involved in at least once every 3-5 days. During an event, we expect active, daily or even hourly, engagement.
  Do not ghost the team or the server. Nothing will make us more frustrated with you.
  Do what you say you are going to do, and try to do it within a reasonable time. Remember that a lot of people are depending on you to hold up your end. Ghosting or stalling leaves a lot of people, who also have lives outside of GoT, waiting on you. That's not fair.
  That said, life happens, people get overwhelmed, things are often more difficult than you thought they were going to be, people reach their emotional limits, and so forth. In other words, a lot of things happen that might mean you are either taking much longer to do something than you thought you would, need help, or can no longer do it.
  And that's okay! We just want you to keep us in the loop. Regular communication of where you're at is much preferred to avoiding or emotional explosions.
  Don't take everything on yourself. It's okay to fail and it's okay to need help. That's what the team is here for. Asking for help when you need it is not "letting everyone down." It's part of doing your part.
 

Conflict Resolution and Emotions

There are going to be a lot of emotions involved in this job. That's inevitable and even good. We want you to care about this as much as we all do!
  We want you to express your feelings, but we prefer to avoid big outbursts and arguments. They will still happen from time to time, but we all work actively on assertive and gentle methods of conflict resolution, for the sake of everyone's mental health.
  People have different conflict resolution styles, too, and that may take some getting used to. For example, Sable strongly prefers to deal with things immediately when they come up, because her life experience has taught her that things that sit fester into resentment, which creates worse problems. On the other hand, Shy prefers to take a step back, process her emotions, and then consider carefully what she wants to say.
  If you force someone into a method of conflict resolution that is foreign to them, you will not get good results. Sable learned quickly that if she pressed an issue with Shy, Shy's reaction was always defensively hostile. She needed to learn to give Shy that room to take a step back, and that Shy doing so did not mean that she was shutting down the discussion and refusing to consider Sable's feelings. And Shy also needed to learn that Sable did not mean to "bully" her into doing what she wanted, but was instead just deeply anxious that things would not get resolved.
 

Getting to Know the GM

Sable has a leadership style that has been described as "masculine." She states things and expects you to speak up if you disagree. It may help to understand that she wants feedback and discussion, even if her tone is direct... unless she specifically says she is putting the boss hat on and making an executive decision. When she does this, she expects that her directives will be followed.
  Sable also thrives in chaos and finds schedules and restrictions challenging. She has learned that this drives some folks crazy, so she tries to adapt to respect everyone's process, but she's still not the best at it. If you are a "plotter" in your life, expect that she will frustrate you. On the other hand, too much chaos will make an organization break down, so if you are a "pantser," expect that you will have to act as Sable does, and adapt to some limits, schedules, and restrictions.
 

Guiding Principles of GoT

There are some philosophies that direct a lot of the behind-the-scenes GoT planning. Sable lives by these and encourages the House Leaders (and that means you!) to do the same.
 

Try not to yuck anyone's yum. Also frequently expressed by Sable as "maximum fun, minimum bullshit." Let people pursue what makes them happy, even if it's not what you would do. Remember that you're telling the story in collaboration with others. They will also have stories they want to tell and you need to try to give them room and agency in that.

Work towards "yes, and," rather than "either, or." There is usually a way that everyone can have what they want. Try to meet people where they are and see that we can all enjoy the sandbox together.

Your needs are just as important as everyone else's. You also have a right to get what you want! People voted for your story, and you have a right to speak up for yourself! Don't quash your needs just to please others, because this leads to resentment and burnout.

Everyone is a volunteer, so we cannot ask anyone to give anything they are not prepared to give. Sometimes, people are going to piss you off because you are relying on them for a project, and they won't come through. Or life will derail them despite their best intentions. However, at some point, the show must go on, so work to find workarounds and be ready to adapt. If possible, we like to consult people on those workarounds, but if that is not possible, you and Sable are empowered to work together to make decisions, even unpopular ones.

It is impossible to make everyone happy. No matter what you do, somebody won't like it, and that's inevitable. Try to go for the thing that makes the most people happy if you can, and be prepared to live with some grumbling.

No means no and yes means yes. Everyone has a right to both consent and agency. This will mean active negotiation and encouraging people to express their opinions, even if they are reluctant to do so. And it also means letting others take the lead on things and running with their vision, too. GoT is a co-created universe and it has room for everybody.

 

A Final Note

The buck has to stop somewhere. For the most part, you will end up taking the lead, or sharing the lead. But as the Producer and the GM, the buck ultimately stops with Sable. Mostly, she will regard you as a partner. She will not only listen to you, she will work actively with you and often defer to you. But sometimes she will override you and make an "executive decision." Please respect that.
 

Impact / Care and Feeding of the Tome Knights

Character Agency is vital. People have to have choices with their characters.

Shy and Foxx let their new undead choose how they turned, be able to get special Litmon, and how they looked on their Kitsune-gumi card.

We can’t just decide everything for them including their lines and actions in the scripts.

People will want your character to make amends

It’s kind of humbling, even though you’re playing the bad guy to make the game work and you might feel punished for playing the bad guy.

Be prepared to do this for peaceful coexistence with the Tome Knights as a whole.