Judge Class 2025 - RPLOG

Participants

• Greyson
• Junes
• Kaguya
• Kira
• Kuricha
• Mal
• Rosemint
• Syntax

Date

18/5/2025

Log

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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're done."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "While this is non-canon and technically OOC, we're using the IC chats so that the logger can pick things up. HI FUTURE PEOPLE ON THE WIKI!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "You are welcome to ask questions ICly, but know you are a dork and you will be judged. <3"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "BUT I ask that you don'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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Excellent! Let's begin then."

(Junes) Junes decided to raise a hand and a few fluffy tails "can we ask questions in the middle or wait till after your done talking?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "You can ask in the middle if it's important, but it's better to wait until I ask if people have questions."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Awesome timing by the way. XD"

(Junes) Junes snickers!

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Alright, first thing's first. What is a judge?...I'm writing the answer, don't go cutting me off now."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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'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's where judges come in!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Judges are player volunteers who have been determined by staff to be trustworthy enough to run canon events for the community! That's right! Unlike other MMORPG's, it is entirely possible for the players to have an impact on the overall world's story! Wow!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "But that comes with a lot of responsibility. Judges aren'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Think of yourself as a guest dungeon master in a D&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't totally haywire."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Anyone can request to be a judge, but you should only request to become one if you don't just want to run canon events but run them for other people. Running events isn'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're only interested in becoming a judge so you can run events for yourself and your small group of friends? Probably don't."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Staff expects judges to be as inclusive as possible and we'd be a little miffed if you just became a judge so your private events could come with special rewards."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Any questions about what a judge is and when you should consider becoming one?"

(Greyson) Greyson raises a hand, "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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Do you mean in the lead up to your event?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Or in preparation to become a judge?"

(Greyson) Greyson shifts his hand in a so-so motion, "Lead up to your first event or before becoming one in the first place, yeah! Both of those work!"

(Junes) Junes raises a hand and offers "maybe like a practice run of your first judged event?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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's actually one of the reasons why we have judge "levels"."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I'll elaborate on levels after this round of questions."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I can also go into more detail on how a judge prepares for events in the next section."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "What I will say is that judges don't need to be an expert on ALL of the game'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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"

(Mal) Mal taps the microphone, before leaning in. "A good way to judge whether you, yourself, are ready to be a Judge is by participating in other Judges' 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't judged at all. I know there's a great Taco Tuesday just about every Tuesday in the Zephyr Lobby, for starters."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Excellent point, actually! Yeah, actually ATTENDING events is also a great strategy to prepare!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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't, and what they'd prevent."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Greyson) Greyson nods, raising a finger "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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "GREAT question and I will go into that later."

(Junes) Junes shifts a bit and adds with a quick tailwave "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'ing in other games help but nerves can be rough!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "So if the general uncertainty is what's got you holding off, trust me. You'll have plenty of support."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Anything else before we continue on"

(Junes) Junes smiles with a nod hearing syntax's response!

(Mal) Mal is one such Judge that's willing to help; he sits around with a lot of dusty knowledge and tidbits. "All you have to do is ask, really - it's that simple! Most people are happy to answer any questions."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Alright, next, let's cover what many likely came here for: What are a judge's responsibilities and what can they do?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Let's start with a judge's responsibilities since this is the part of being a judge where you are actively being restricted and can't just do whatever."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Not being an asshole is kind of at the top of the list, but I would hope that's obvious."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "For example, while there isn'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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's day."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I'm sure you're wondering how the fak a judge is supposed to figure out scope!

I'm glad you asked!"

(Syntax) -Why has no one heard of this before or might not immediately have heard about it after the event concludes?

-What would happen if this became wide spread or more widely known?

-Can the event occur more than once? Why or why not?

-Who would be most interested in the outcome of this event? Why?

-What aspects of the world will this change the most?

-How confident would you feel suggesting your idea to a member of staff if not Nuku himself? Why?

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Keeping a story'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't want for the story or players."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "This list is actually super useful for NON judges as well!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "While this is important for non-judges to consider what to make canon, players obviously don't have the same rights as far as enacting canon as judges do and this can help you prevent implementing story elements that wouldn't be acceptable as canon should it come up in a judged event."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I actually recommend this checklist (or something similar) in just about every MMO I ever interact with. It's usually far more important in other games due to players not being able to influence the canon at all."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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'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!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Any questions regarding respecting the game's lore? Or, god forbid, not being an asshole?"

(Greyson) Greyson raises a hand.

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Shoot, Grey!"

(Kaguya) Kaguya also raises a hand actually, has a dumb question!

(Greyson) Greyson muses, "For scenes in areas that maybe haven'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 'consistency' 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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "That is actually a great question and one that I have personal experience with!!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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's also hilariously how I became a member of staff. I wouldn't stop bugging Nuku and he was eventually like "You want it? IT'S YOURS!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "For content that hasn't really been updated in a long time, you should at a minimum try and figure out the original intent of the zone."

(Kaguya) Kaguya softly churrs "For missions like the FOB, we were able to take the tower without any issues that couldn'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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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)."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "And for things such as Out of the Bubble lore that has very little information? That's part of why judges are important!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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's box of ramifications."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Greyson) Greyson raises a finger, "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?"

(Junes) Junes raised a hand but looked over to kaguya this time, making a gesture to syntax and getting the okay the hissune answers "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!"

(Kuricha) Kuricha raises a hand with a Kweeh-stion..?

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I'll answer Grey's question last as it does have a few important extra points. Go ahead, Kuricha"

(Kaguya) Kaguya nods at the Hissah's question and gives them a thank you thumbs up!

(Kaguya) Answer!*

(Kuricha) Kuricha speaks up and is mute says "Kweeh!" but it translates to; "How involved is the Judge'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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Oh, AWESOME question, actually! Remember how I said that your role as a judge is more so for the community than for yourself?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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't hog the spotlight away from the players is actually kind of the easier part."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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't."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "So while you are not forbidden from being just as involved as the players, you'd basically be judging on hard mode."

(Mal) Mal thinks it's not out of the question to have your character be the one *initiating* the scene. "Say, being the one HIRING this little band of mercenaries, or being the one with the job posting, as examples. But that's more a personal stance - I don't like to take it any further than a supporting role, though, much like Syntax."

(Mal) Mal gloriously bellows "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're* running yourself."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "As to Grey's question! Land deeds serve two purposes. They make rooms permanent (so they don't expire) and they give you ownership over them. That means you can install outpost equipment, put locked doors on them, whatever. It'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Rooms created or modified in this manner are owned by the entire community. You cannot claim ownership after the fact."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "And as a judge, you cannot introduce reasons why nobody but you can run events there."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Rooms created for free in relation to judged events are *explicitly* just as open to use as any other non-player owned space."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Any questions on that or anything else we've discussed before I move on to the next judge responsibility?"

(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's character in the scene and it set a good example.

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I have seen it done well, but it is VERY hard to do."

(Junes) Junes nods "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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I'm going to save that as an after party question, Junes, since that's not generally something a judge needs to worry about."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "String parsing is a whole other beast."

(Junes) Junes nods "it, truly is"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Anything else before we move on?"

(Kuricha) Kuricha raises a hand haz another Kwee-stion??~

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Go for it, Kuricha"

(Kuricha) Kuricha says "Kweeh!!" but it translates to "What are the maximum and minimum limits for players joining your Judged scene?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Great question because that leads into my next subject!"

(Junes) Junes tails wag and add as a question "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!" they add an illusionary sparkler effect around them for cheeky emphasis~

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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.

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's fewer people before and after them."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "My personal abject maximum is 7 people and that's SUPER pushing it"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "A far more comfortable number just about any judge should be able to handle is 4 people."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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't attend your initial event."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "But not wasting people's time actually also extends to June's question. Some players have been playing for so long that their characters have CRAZY stats. This isn'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "But you could also introduce rules to limit people from going beyond those max caps."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Or...not at all. The CORE goal is to ensure that everyone has a chance to be useful during the event."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "While reducing extreme stats helps with that, it's not a cure all and you still have to give everyone a time to shine."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Respecting the time of players extends to respecting their consent and agency as well, though. I mean, they're kind of separate topics, but this lets me address them at the same time. :P"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "That also extends to any content warnings for sensitive or extreme content. Yes, that includes noncon."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "If you don'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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Any questions about respecting player time and agency?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Alright, the next responsibility are player rewards!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "If something is not accomplished beyond you getting your rocks off, it does not qualify for rewards."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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't yield as much as canon ones."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I just ran the command and those that have run judged scenes will note that it's not too much. It's something, but not much."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Outside of direct rewards, judges can also progress duties that require a scene to progress and advance pending research projects!"

(Rosemint) Rosemint squeaks, "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?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "If judges stay on top of pending scenes, not often. But we've had a long lul of judge content which means there's a huge pile of pending scenes that need to be run. They won't auto-complete."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "I think one of the research projects has literally been pending for over a decade."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "It was actually mentioned in the last judge class in 2016 as still needing an event to progress."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Was kind of hilarious to see honestly."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "So if a duty or research is currently pending an event to progress, SOME judge needs to take up the mantle."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "That's one of the reasons why it's important for judges to do events for things besides their pet projects."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Any questions about rewards?"

(Mal) Mal commands "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Yup! I guess I should emphasize that events to advance research or duties should uh...be related to what you are advancing. XP"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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."

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "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!"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "ANY questions before we move into the next section?"

(Rosemint) Rosemint sultrily squeaks "What's a good balance between prewriting things and writing in the moment?"

(Syntax) Syntax chitters "Hmm...good question. I'd say, generally, the best things to have prewritten, even before the event starts, are descriptions of rooms, creatures, pre-scripted events, etc."