View source for Judge Class 2025 - RPLOG

=Participants=
* [[User:Greyson|Greyson]]
* [[User:Junes|Junes]]
* [[User:Kaguya|Kaguya]]
* [[User:Kira|Kira]]
* [[User:Kuricha|Kuricha]]
* [[User:Mal|Mal]]
* [[User:Rosemint|Rosemint]]
* [[User:Syntax|Syntax]]
=Date=
18/5/2025
=Log=
<div></div><div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;HELLOOO! And welcome to the first recorded judge class since 2016! This is entirely OOC and non-canon, but I will be handing out cookies and shit once we&#39;re done.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;While this is non-canon and technically OOC, we&#39;re using the IC chats so that the logger can pick things up. HI FUTURE PEOPLE ON THE WIKI!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;You are welcome to ask questions ICly, but know you are a dork and you will be judged. &lt;3&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;BUT I ask that you don&#39;t flood chat with nonsense or unrelated stuff. People are going to be reading this for later usage, after all. Any questions before we get started?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Excellent! Let&#39;s begin then.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  decided to raise a hand and a few fluffy tails &quot;can we ask questions in the middle or wait till after your done talking?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;You can ask in the middle if it&#39;s important, but it&#39;s better to wait until I ask if people have questions.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Awesome timing by the way. XD&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  snickers!</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Alright, first thing&#39;s first. What is a judge?...I&#39;m writing the answer, don&#39;t go cutting me off now.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;People crave events and the staff recognizes that a static world in which nothing changes is prone to become stagnant as far as the RP community is concerned. If people&#39;s actions have no impact on the world or the world never changes, it can really drag things down. But staff have their own lives as well not to mention tasks they have to do for the game. That&#39;s where judges come in!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Judges are player volunteers who have been determined by staff to be trustworthy enough to run canon events for the community! That&#39;s right! Unlike other MMORPG&#39;s, it is entirely possible for the players to have an impact on the overall world&#39;s story! Wow!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;But that comes with a lot of responsibility. Judges aren&#39;t just running whatever they want. They are representatives of the game and its setting and are expected to not just run solid events and ensure everyone plays nice but also ensure their events respect the world they are running it in.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Think of yourself as a guest dungeon master in a D&amp;D game you are temporarily taking over half way through the campaign. There are certain expectations that once the real DM comes back, things aren&#39;t totally haywire.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Anyone can request to be a judge, but you should only request to become one if you don&#39;t just want to run canon events but run them for other people. Running events isn&#39;t just for YOUR benefit. This is most definitely a public service and there will be times where judged events need to be run that might be entirely removed from whatever pet project you have cooking in your skull. Remember: You can always ASK a judge to host an event based on your idea. If you&#39;re only interested in becoming a judge so you can run events for yourself and your small group of friends? Probably don&#39;t.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Staff expects judges to be as inclusive as possible and we&#39;d be a little miffed if you just became a judge so your private events could come with special rewards.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Any questions about what a judge is and when you should consider becoming one?&quot;</div> <div title="Greyson" style="margin-top:2em">(Greyson) Greyson raises a hand, &quot;For those curious about becoming a judge, what would you recommend as practice or preparation beforehand? Aside from just reading up on commands or a few bits and pieces from logs like this one?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Do you mean in the lead up to your event?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Or in preparation to become a judge?&quot;</div> <div title="Greyson" style="margin-top:2em">(Greyson) Greyson shifts his hand in a so-so motion, &quot;Lead up to your first event or before becoming one in the first place, yeah! Both of those work!&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  raises a hand and offers &quot;maybe like a practice run of your first judged event?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;To become a judge, you mainly need to show staff that you are a good RPer, a decent person, and have your heart int he right place. Becoming a judge, theoretically, is easy. That&#39;s actually one of the reasons why we have judge &quot;levels&quot;.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I&#39;ll elaborate on levels after this round of questions.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I can also go into more detail on how a judge prepares for events in the next section.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;What I will say is that judges don&#39;t need to be an expert on ALL of the game&#39;s lore. Knowing as much as possible is important, but what matters most is that you know everything you need to know specifically for the scene you want to run.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;So, for the purposes of just becoming a judge, the main prep work you should do if you ask me are two things. Make yourself known in the community and psudo-run a scene or two based around your character&quot;</div> <div title="Mal" style="margin-top:2em">(Mal) Mal taps the microphone, before leaning in. &quot;A good way to judge whether you, yourself, are ready to be a Judge is by participating in other Judges&#39; events. It ties in with showing Staff that you are a good RPer, and decent person. Other Judged events, and even public RPs that aren&#39;t judged at all. I know there&#39;s a great Taco Tuesday just about every Tuesday in the Zephyr Lobby, for starters.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Excellent point, actually! Yeah, actually ATTENDING events is also a great strategy to prepare!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Just note that, just like RP styles, all judges have their own styles. The best example of this is actually the recent three out of bubble events that were run&quot;</div><div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Part of the difference came down to learning from the events that came before, but each person had their own ideas as to what was possible, what wasn&#39;t, and what they&#39;d prevent.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;This is one of the reasons I encourage judges to post rules and expectations for an event at the start of it and provide potential warnings (be they dangers or content warnings) in the event description.&quot;</div> <div title="Greyson" style="margin-top:2em">(Greyson) Greyson nods, raising a finger &quot;Might be a question for later, but related to the more recent events on the FOB. How would you recommend judges deal with plot conflicts or inconsistencies if something unexpected comes up?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;GREAT question and I will go into that later.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  shifts a bit and adds with a quick tailwave &quot;any words of encouragement or advice for starting as one? even as a player thats been perusing the lore for a while, engaged in plenty and part of many scenes in and out of judged ones...it can be somewhat nerve wracking knowing whether or not you are ready. however i do know that notes and having options outside of the main goal if things go akew is important and same rules similar for GM&#39;ing in other games help but nerves can be rough!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;and as a solid reminder: If you ever are unsure of the lore or if you could run something, staff ACTIVELY encourage you to not just talk to your fellow judges but file a general support request! Heck, you can ping me (screwbucket) personally! Also, for future readers, I am a member of staff as well as a judge. XP&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;So if the general uncertainty is what&#39;s got you holding off, trust me. You&#39;ll have plenty of support.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Anything else before we continue on&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  smiles with a nod hearing syntax&#39;s response!</div> <div title="Mal" style="margin-top:2em">(Mal) Mal is one such Judge that&#39;s willing to help; he sits around with a lot of dusty knowledge and tidbits. &quot;All you have to do is ask, really - it&#39;s that simple! Most people are happy to answer any questions.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Alright, next, let&#39;s cover what many likely came here for: What are a judge&#39;s responsibilities and what can they do?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Let&#39;s start with a judge&#39;s responsibilities since this is the part of being a judge where you are actively being restricted and can&#39;t just do whatever.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Not being an asshole is kind of at the top of the list, but I would hope that&#39;s obvious.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Just behind that is keeping your events in line with the overall world. While that obviously means not contradicting all of the lore that already exists, that ALSO means not creating new lore that could be extremely  intrusive on future content.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;For example, while there isn&#39;t any lore that states that Zephyr can remotely mind control the entire city by hijacking the bubble, one could imagine a world in which they are capable of doing that. However, if that were to be done, it would kind of throw the entire world into kind of a worst case scenario and be kind of an end game.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;A judge needs to consider the potential scope of what they want to do both for the sake of not burning themselves out but also to not accidentally cause a ripple across the entire world so massive that it ruins everyone&#39;s day.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I&#39;m sure you&#39;re wondering how the fak a judge is supposed to figure out scope!<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>I&#39;m glad you asked!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax)  -Why has no one heard of this before or might not immediately have heard about it after the event concludes?<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>-What would happen if this became wide spread or more widely known?<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>-Can the event occur more than once? Why or why not?<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>-Who would be most interested in the outcome of this event? Why?<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>-What aspects of the world will this change the most?<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>-How confident would you feel suggesting your idea to a member of staff if not Nuku himself? Why?
</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Keeping a story&#39;s scope in mind is VERY useful for planning as well. Understanding the ramifications of what you want to do can help figure out potential future threats and how to avoid starting something that has consequences you don&#39;t want for the story or players.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;This list is actually super useful for NON judges as well!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;While this is important for non-judges to consider what to make canon, players obviously don&#39;t have the same rights as far as enacting canon as judges do and this can help you prevent implementing story elements that wouldn&#39;t be acceptable as canon should it come up in a judged event.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I actually recommend this checklist (or something similar) in just about every MMO I ever interact with. It&#39;s usually far more important in other games due to players not being able to influence the canon at all.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;As for how a judge researches for an event to figure out the answers to that question, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the game has been around for a long time and the record keeping for judged events hasn&#39;t been great. The good news is that staff are often willing to give the green light on new events if you have good justifications. If you want to dive into old events, however, they are all listed on the wiki!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Any questions regarding respecting the game&#39;s lore? Or, god forbid, not being an asshole?&quot;</div> <div title="Greyson" style="margin-top:2em">(Greyson) Greyson raises a hand.</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Shoot, Grey!&quot;</div> <div title="Kaguya" style="margin-top:2em">(Kaguya) Kaguya also raises a hand actually, has a dumb question!</div><div title="Greyson" style="margin-top:2em">(Greyson) Greyson muses, &quot;For scenes in areas that maybe haven&#39;t seen development for years- or sometimes over a decade given the age of FS as a game, how would any of the above rules on &#39;consistency&#39; change? Would it be possible to argue that enough time has passed for something new to be made from the old location, or should newer scenes still try to follow along the same sort of story-arc that the original creator was working on before they left?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;That is actually a great question and one that I have personal experience with!!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Eureka as a zone, prior to me getting involved with it, had remained mostly untouched since, like, 2013. Give or take a few years. It&#39;s also hilariously how I became a member of staff. I wouldn&#39;t stop bugging Nuku and he was eventually like &quot;You want it? IT&#39;S YOURS!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;For content that hasn&#39;t really been updated in a long time, you should at a minimum try and figure out the original intent of the zone.&quot;</div> <div title="Kaguya" style="margin-top:2em">(Kaguya) Kaguya softly churrs &quot;For missions like the FOB, we were able to take the tower without any issues that couldn&#39;t be dealt with but what does happen if a judged scene...fails? Would there be another judged scene in the future to retake the tower again or would that just be it?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;For example, Eureka stands out from other areas because it is primarily protected by remnants of the US military, was a front line for China&#39;s invasion, and has the highest number of insect based infections. It also is one of the few zones that has an explicitly visible criminal underworld.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;For older concepts that have gone untouched, you can also bug the staff (as I did) to get more insights as to what is going on. In some cases, like me as a member of staff and Eureka, you can even get more immediate and certain responses (since that zone is basically entirely under my area of interest).&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;And for things such as Out of the Bubble lore that has very little information? That&#39;s part of why judges are important!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Areas of the world that have had little story exploration are actually SUPER useful for judges because the only thing you might have to do is avoid introducing something that turns into a metaphorical pandora&#39;s box of ramifications.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;As an example, Firecracker was interested in introducing something into OotB content that was heavily inspired by the Stalker series. Pockets of abnormal anomalies created by malfunctioning mako nanites.&quot;</div> <div title="Greyson" style="margin-top:2em">(Greyson) Greyson raises a finger, &quot;That- does bring up another question... when it comes to making /new/ areas, are those done with personal deeds, or something staff can help you assemble?&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  raised a hand but looked over to kaguya this time, making a gesture to syntax and getting the okay the hissune answers &quot;about that! it really depends but for example, one event i had been part of was a rescue effort for the previous team...or another where we had taken so long they presumed our team was lost but came back...but yes efforts can possibly be taken to try and unscrew the situation but other times that simply may be it but typically there are options and of course suggestions or solutions aside from that contextually, a town not receiving supplies in time may have ventured out to get resources and upon return the new mission is to find the missing townspeople! lots of possibilities or sure!&quot;</div> <div title="Kuricha" style="margin-top:2em">(Kuricha) Kuricha raises a hand with a Kweeh-stion..?</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Sorry, that one took a bit to answer. I let Junes type that up so I could finish this, but yes! A judged event can theoretically fail and what happens next is really up to the judge and the players.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I&#39;ll answer Grey&#39;s question last as it does have a few important extra points. Go ahead, Kuricha&quot;</div> <div title="Kaguya" style="margin-top:2em">(Kaguya) Kaguya nods at the Hissah&#39;s question and gives them a thank you thumbs up!</div> <div title="Kaguya" style="margin-top:2em">(Kaguya) Answer!*</div> <div title="Kuricha" style="margin-top:2em">(Kuricha) Kuricha speaks up and is mute says &quot;Kweeh!&quot; but it translates to; &quot;How involved is the Judge&#39;s character allowed to get into the scenes they run, or do they have to sit it out and let the other players have all the spotlight?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Oh, AWESOME question, actually! Remember how I said that your role as a judge is more so for the community than for yourself?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Your question actually ties into something dungeon masters in tabletops have to contend with themselves. Can your character be just as involved as the players? Yes...but it can be VERY difficult to separate your powers as a Judge and your meta knowledge of the situation with the actions of your character. Ensuring your character doesn&#39;t hog the spotlight away from the players is actually kind of the easier part.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;The far harder part is both running a scene in which you are aware of everything that is going on and playing a character who...well. Doesn&#39;t.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;My general advice for judges is, if your character is involved, give them a supporting role of some kind or give them something to do while the players are active in the scene.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;For example, when I ran the FOB event, Wolfwood was off fighting off smaller adds that would have distracted the players as they took down the two bosses.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;In past events related to the Enigma Complex, Syntax was often staying behind and providing admin support while the players went into the dangerous lower levels.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;So while you are not forbidden from being just as involved as the players, you&#39;d basically be judging on hard mode.&quot;</div> <div title="Mal" style="margin-top:2em">(Mal) Mal thinks it&#39;s not out of the question to have your character be the one *initiating* the scene. &quot;Say, being the one HIRING this little band of mercenaries, or being the one with the job posting, as examples. But that&#39;s more a personal stance - I don&#39;t like to take it any further than a supporting role, though, much like Syntax.&quot;</div><div title="Mal" style="margin-top:2em">(Mal) Mal gloriously bellows &quot;It can get very complicated after a certain point, and you might have people start eyeballing you funny for always being part of the group doing cool things, in the scene *you&#39;re* running yourself.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;As to Grey&#39;s question! Land deeds serve two purposes. They make rooms permanent (so they don&#39;t expire) and they give you ownership over them. That means you can install outpost equipment, put locked doors on them, whatever. It&#39;s yours. However, there are some rare instances where there is good reason for a judge to request a member of staff to create NEW rooms that are not associated with a land deed. This is actually something I am willing to do in Eureka for Eureka based judged events.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;The BIG caveat, however is that you do not own that land, you have no say over it or what happens on it in present or in future, and it has to make sense to remain and be a visitable location after the event and not just a corner nobody goes to.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Rooms created or modified in this manner are owned by the entire community. You cannot claim ownership after the fact.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;And as a judge, you cannot introduce reasons why nobody but you can run events there.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Rooms created for free in relation to judged events are *explicitly* just as open to use as any other non-player owned space.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Any questions on that or anything else we&#39;ve discussed before I move on to the next judge responsibility?&quot;</div> <div title="Kuricha" style="margin-top:2em">(Kuricha) Kuricha nods hir in agreement with reply to hir kweeh-stion, and liked the way Narwen ran their scene to. It seems like being highly active would make Judging so much more difficult and perhaps detrimental to the other players experience. I know its personal preference but that scene was alot of fun and we never even met Narwen&#39;s character in the scene and it set a good example.</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I have seen it done well, but it is VERY hard to do.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  nods &quot;any advice or tips on creating said rooms? or like...where you can find commands for things like parsing or look traps to spruce and spice up the rooms themselves while writing?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I&#39;m going to save that as an after party question, Junes, since that&#39;s not generally something a judge needs to worry about.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;String parsing is a whole other beast.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  nods &quot;it, truly is&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Anything else before we move on?&quot;</div> <div title="Kuricha" style="margin-top:2em">(Kuricha) Kuricha raises a hand haz another Kwee-stion??~</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Go for it, Kuricha&quot;</div> <div title="Kuricha" style="margin-top:2em">(Kuricha) Kuricha  says &quot;Kweeh!!&quot; but it translates to &quot;What are the maximum and minimum limits for players joining your Judged scene?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Great question because that leads into my next subject!&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  tails wag and add as a question &quot;oh! this came as an issue but could be answered later, relevant to combat and skill checks between veterans and more recent or even new players, any advice on keeping it enjoyable for both to participate without veterans doing everything or newers players having the chance to accomplish similar things? i know you you do them but, id love to add it here and hear other thoughts about it!&quot; they add an illusionary sparkler effect around them for cheeky emphasis~</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;The next major responsibility a judge has is not wasting the time of players and ensuring you give people ample opportunity to attend. Because this is all text based, events can run long in large part because not everyone is a monster like me and can type anywhere between 80 to 90 words per minute. As a judge that means that not only are you setting time aside in your own day to run the event but people are also sacrificing time out of their day.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>
	 So. How do you balance all of that? Well. First, you should limit the number of people who attend your events. Not only does this give you as an individual an easier time focusing on each person and giving everyone a chance to shine, but it also enable people who are slower typers more time to reply since there&#39;s fewer people before and after them.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;A judged event requires at least 2 people not including the judge. While there are no rules for a maximum number of attendees, as a judge, you should figure out what you are most comfortable with.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;My personal abject maximum is 7 people and that&#39;s SUPER pushing it&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;A far more comfortable number just about any judge should be able to handle is 4 people.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;If you want to handle even more people, rather than running one event with a ton of people, running multiple smaller events is preferrable or even asking other judges to run events with people who couldn&#39;t attend your initial event.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;But not wasting people&#39;s time actually also extends to June&#39;s question. Some players have been playing for so long that their characters have CRAZY stats. This isn&#39;t as bad as it used to be before we implemented a cap on the number of high level stats you can have, but it is still possible to have a skill at nearly 60 when the normal cap is 40. How you handle this is kind of a personal preference.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;My personal strategy is to heavily reward players with super high stats to reduce their cap closer to or even below 40 with reroll dice.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;But you could also introduce rules to limit people from going beyond those max caps.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Or...not at all. The CORE goal is to ensure that everyone has a chance to be useful during the event.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;While reducing extreme stats helps with that, it&#39;s not a cure all and you still have to give everyone a time to shine.&quot;</div><div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Respecting the time of players extends to respecting their consent and agency as well, though. I mean, they&#39;re kind of separate topics, but this lets me address them at the same time. :P&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;As a judge, you do, theoretically, have the power to demand a player +retire (ie: DELEETUS)...but you should keep in mind how huge of a deal that is for everyone both involved and also who just knows the character. Character death is a pretty big deal. If character death is a possibility as a result of the event, you should make that SUPER clear both when advertising the event and prior to starting it.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;That also extends to any content warnings for sensitive or extreme content. Yes, that includes noncon.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;If you surprise players with something that they did not agree to and you never told them about, they have every justification to just leave the event and leave YOU a mess you are obligated to clean up.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;If you don&#39;t warn players about potential long term harm that could come to their character or sensitive content that could arise and drama happens as a result, staff are more likely going to be sympathetic to the players if a warning was not given before hand.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;To join a judged event is to surrender the absolute power a player has over their character. You should ensure that, when they do that, they know what that could mean in that event.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Any questions about respecting player time and agency?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Alright, the next responsibility are player rewards!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;This is both something you are responsible for as well as something you probably should do if you want to encourage people to attend your events.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;When people attend an event and actively participate, you can run commands to deal out rewards to players! This can be exp, loot, influence, reward tokens, or a general buff. However, you can only deal these out when you are running a canon event!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;That means that the event must fit within the world as described before, there must be at least two players in attendance not including you, and the event must actually serve a purpose. Events that are just glorified orgies do not count.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;If something is not accomplished beyond you getting your rocks off, it does not qualify for rewards.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Well, not the rewards I mentioned. You can still provide SOMETHING! There is a certain command you can use for non-canon events but it doesn&#39;t yield as much as canon ones.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I just ran the command and those that have run judged scenes will note that it&#39;s not too much. It&#39;s something, but not much.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;You can only give so many rewards depending on how long the event has run with the general guideline being around 4 group rewards for an event that runs 9 hours. I think you can do more, but eventually the command will stop giving out anything.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Outside of direct rewards, judges can also progress duties that require a scene to progress and advance pending research projects!&quot;</div> <div title="Rosemint" style="margin-top:2em">(Rosemint) Rosemint squeaks, &quot;I did have a question about that. How often do the scenes to progress duties pile up and do they ever clear on their own without a scene?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;If judges stay on top of pending scenes, not often. But we&#39;ve had a long lul of judge content which means there&#39;s a huge pile of pending scenes that need to be run. They won&#39;t auto-complete.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I think one of the research projects has literally been pending for over a decade.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;It was actually mentioned in the last judge class in 2016 as still needing an event to progress.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Was kind of hilarious to see honestly.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;So if a duty or research is currently pending an event to progress, SOME judge needs to take up the mantle.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;That&#39;s one of the reasons why it&#39;s important for judges to do events for things besides their pet projects.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Any questions about rewards?&quot;</div> <div title="Mal" style="margin-top:2em">(Mal) Mal commands &quot;Also to note, a Duty only really needs a scene if Players are making progress fulfilling it. A Duty with a lot of attention will need a scene faster than an untouched Duty. And, of course, the scene usually has to do with the Duty - hence, making progress to push it to its next stage.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Yup! I guess I should emphasize that events to advance research or duties should uh...be related to what you are advancing. XP&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;And one last requirement until we move into the next section which is still also a responsibility but it deserves its own entire bit to itself!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;You must be able to make coherent, understandable messages. That means complete sentences and all that jazz. Players need to be able to understand the scenario you are putting before them.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Players might be allowed to not be great at writing, but as a judge, you need to be able to string sentences together! If, for nothing else, the players to know wtf you are trying to portray!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;ANY questions before we move into the next section?&quot;</div> <div title="Rosemint" style="margin-top:2em">(Rosemint) Rosemint sultrily squeaks &quot;What&#39;s a good balance between prewriting things and writing in the moment?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Hmm...good question. I&#39;d say, generally, the best things to have prewritten, even before the event starts, are descriptions of rooms, creatures, pre-scripted events, etc.&quot;</div><div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;It might be hard to anticipate what players will do, but things that you KNOW will come up are good candidates to have pre-loaded.&quot;</div> <div title="Rosemint" style="margin-top:2em">(Rosemint) Rosemint sultrily squeaks &quot;That makes sense, thank you.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Anyone else?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Alrighty, onto the last major responsibility a judge has besides crafting stories and what was mentioned above! Enforcing good RP standards! As a judge, you should and are expected to ensure players are playing nice and not conducting themselves poorly. This isn&#39;t just about OOC behavior but also how they are RPing. Note that is less about RP style and more so about them taking part in practices that are not good for the health of a scene.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;The three main things you need to intervene on are: Metagaming, Godmodding, and Imping. That last one is a term I came up with, so don&#39;t worry, I&#39;ll be explaining what that is when I get to it.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;First, Metagaming. This is when a player uses knowledge that they have OOC and have their character know it IC despite there being no justifiable reason for them to know it.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;For example, if one of their characters knew my character was a spy and then their OTHER character also knew despite their two characters not even knowing one another and/or the characters having no reason to exchange this information? That would be metagaming.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;It is ENTIRELY possible to do this by complete accident.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;In the example I gave, it is possible the player literally just lost track of which of their characters knew what.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Frankly, a spotty memory is one of the more common roots of metagaming. If you think it&#39;s happening in your judged event, you are entirely within your right to ask for justification as to how they knew something.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Does anyone need further elaboration on metagaming?&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Alright, next up: Godmodding. This can come in many forms and goes by different names, so I&#39;m going to split this into two categories: Powergaming and puppeteering.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;It&#39;s basically all about making yourself the strongest, best around at some aspect.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;OPE! I did the first part OOC My bad!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Powergaming is when you go out of your way to make your character broken/over powered to &quot;win&quot; the scene and steal the spotlight. This is less of an issue in Flexible Survival as we have explicit stats and ways of proving when we have specific powers or items, but someone could still theoretically try and worm their way into trying to be the strongest dude around so they can hog the spotlight.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;It&#39;s basically all about making yourself the strongest, best around at some aspect.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I&#39;ll fix that in post.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  notes &quot;or some way to circumvent things in a way that wasnt intended...for example, having a womb for rent with a mini-server that has not only regulation nanomagic but a room for each and claiming you own every nanomagic usage even outside of bubbles to use freely from the installed mini server providing the bubble.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;PRECISELY, yeah.&quot;</div> <div title="Rosemint" style="margin-top:2em">(Rosemint) Rosemint tilts her head, &quot;That seems like a very specific example.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;I&#39;ll chalk that up to Junes wondering how miniservers inside a womb for rent would work out of bubble. XP&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Hilariously, though, the obvious answer to that is that miniservers are not servers in of themselves and are still reliant on proper nanite bubbles to work so a miniserver within a womb for rent would cease functioning once they left the bubble.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  laughs nervously &quot;uhh...yes it is! it was, something i considered but decided against when buying a mini-server from someone cheap but deciding against that for obvious reasons! so dont worry im  not planning on it&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Also, a far more likely scenario is someone using magic origin traits to try and cheese a scene when nanites wouldn&#39;t work.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Remember: Your goal is to tell an interesting story. If someone&#39;s action would basically entirely ruin a scene, you have every right to bullshit your way through an explanation as to why it fails to work.&quot;</div> <div title="Rosemint" style="margin-top:2em">(Rosemint) Rosemint now wonders what would happen if she made Regulation Nanomagic into a Tail Ringlet power... Magical cartoon powers for everyone?</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;And for the PLAYERS, this is also something to keep in mind. Just because you CAN do something doesn&#39;t always mean you should.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;You should also focus on trying to ensure a scene remains fun and interesting.&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Any questions on Powergaming?&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  nods &quot;yep! not as fun when you arent capable of chatting or accomplishing anything, teamwork makes the dreamwork!&quot;</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Anyone else before I move into puppeteering?&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  notes &quot;a little thing, just because you can! does not mean you always should. communication is important both in and out of character and as always have you and their fun in mind for the scenes!&quot; their tails wag a bit but sitting back seemed done for now</div> <div title="Syntax" style="margin-top:2em">(Syntax) Syntax chitters &quot;Awesome! I did say that but still! Reiteration! XP&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes  &quot;oh and double checking that as well, my bad!&quot;</div>