Welcome back to Gestalt. Last month I talked about the crucial leadership role within your creative team, but there are many other roles to fill. I'll outline several different ways of organizing the staff towards this end, but why should you have clearly defined roles in the first place?

The Control Conundrum

"I had to rework that changeling character you made last month."
"Why?"
"The player's never played changeling before, right?"
"Yeah, her werewolf character died and she wanted to try playing a changeling."
"I'd have preferred if you would have told me that so I could make the character. You started her out about three times as powerful as any of the other changeling PCs in the game."
"Oh. Oops."

I remember reading an interview with the founders of Image Comics way back in the early 90s. According to the article, one of the biggest reasons that they walked away from Marvel was lack of creative control. The characters that they wrote and drew every month could be used in crossovers with other comics without consultation.

A lot of the time, this wasn't a problem. However, if the guest writer had the hero do something out of character or otherwise mucked with continuity, it would confuse the fans. Moreover, it would make the original writers and artists feel like all the work they'd put into the character was for nothing. This policy may have changed in the past 15 years, and the Image founders may or may not have been overstating the problem, but the scenario has a similar effect inside the creative team that you'll be working on.

Unless your group can communicate constantly, individuals will be doing a large portion of the work on the game. You'll likely propose the concepts during group meetings, and the leader will have final sign-off, but solitary members will hammer out the particulars. Frequently, it's the most efficient use of time to give each member of the team free reign to work on developing or managing discreet pieces of the game without significant input from the others.

With personal work comes a feeling of personal ownership. For many, it's painful to see someone else touching something they feel like they own without asking, no matter how good the intentions or the friendship. Even more, if someone has truly devoted time and thought to a particular facet of the game, a specialization is developed. The owner of that facet understands the wider ramifications of making changes to it that might not be considered by teammates that do not work with it as deeply.

Essentially, it's next to inevitable that teammates will take on roles of their own unless all work is done in committee. Even then, individuals can grow attached to certain NPCs that they've played and plotlines in which they've been heavily involved. When this feeling of ownership is denied, it can make individuals feel like their hard work is not appreciated. If getting hurt feelings isn't an issue, continuity and player perceptions can be. Someone who has specialized in part of the game world can frequently see the ramifications of changing it far better than someone who only has a casual understanding.

Since roles will form naturally, it's worthwhile to consider them up front and portion them out appropriately. Team members can fill multiple roles if they have the time and desire. Roles can be shared as long as it's understood that those sharing are responsible for keeping the other completely abreast of all changes that are made.

What follows are some suggested divisions in team roles. The leader role discussed last month is always considered a distinct role in any set.

The Development Pool

"Should we split the new race packet up like we did the last one, everyone writing a section and me doing editing?"
"Yeah, I guess we could do that."
"Or would you all just like to send me random ideas about the race and let me assemble them and do all the writing?"
"Let's do that!"

Early on in game development, perhaps the most important task is assembling all the information and materials that will be necessary to support the game. If your team is using an existing rules system and setting, this process involves writing plotlines, generating NPCs, creating player handouts, and creating props. If you're creating either a unique setting or custom rules, you'll need the documents that will explain what the players need to know and the secret documents that explain what the staff needs to know. If you're one of the mad, brave teams that's making a new setting with its own rules, you'll need to kill a large number of trees in the process of all that writing.

In this array of group roles, team members are divided by the particular skills that they can bring to the development process.

Editor/Head Writer: This is a job for the person with most drive to put words to computer screen and the free time to do it. It's nice if your group has a professional novelist with a doctorate in English grammar, but don't sweat it if you don't.

The only things truly required of the group editor are dedication and the ability to use a word processor's spell checker. The editor goes through all documentation that will be read by players and makes sure that it has the intended feel and flow. He is also the one who will sit down and type up anything that absolutely has to be in the packets but wasn't actually written by anyone else on staff. Thus, it's a job for someone not afraid to sit down and actually pound out a few hundred or few thousand words on a deadline. All text that is shown to the players should at least be given a read-through by the editor.

Section Writers: A role that will hopefully be created, be completed, and be destroyed in a short time frame is that of writing individual sections of different projects that the players will see. These sections could be as broad as one member writing down the rules and the other writing down the setting material or as narrow as the different sections of a race packet.

The person writing a section is responsible for taking the ideas established by the group in committee and putting them into words that the players can read. The writer of a section will usually need to add ideas to flesh out existing ideas into complete player references, and should have the leeway to be creative on this point. All of this text will eventually go to the editor to see if it needs polishing or reworking. Team members should only take on the role of a section writer if they're sure that they have the time and inclination to write; if they'd prefer to do something else, taking charge of a section will only result in a delay on the project.

Plot Owners: The owner of a plot is responsible for thinking through and probably writing down all the details necessary for a plot to be presented successfully. The team can have one person that does this for all plots developed in committee, or can split plots, events, and encounters up and parcel them out.

The plot owner is responsible for figuring out what NPCs and props will be necessary for a plot to work, for figuring out different scenarios that could occur based on PC actions, and for articulating all of this to the rest of the staff. This role will vary widely based on the type and size of the game. Most precisely, a plot owner does what solitary GMs do as a matter of course, but has to make sure that the plot will work even if the owner is not there to micromanage every detail or even not there at all.

NPC Crafters: One of the greatest assets of the gestalt is that one GM isn't forced to play every single non-player character in the game world. With multiple staff members, it's easy to portray several distinct NPCs with different agendas and different personalities without the players getting the slightest bit confused. However, this means that each of these NPC roles should be compelling and interesting enough to have the full attention of a staff member playing it.

Staff members who craft NPCs are responsible for generating characters for themselves or other staff members to play. They have to include enough details in these write-ups that the staff member playing the NPC will be able to react to players as a three-dimensional character. This means stats, motivation and agenda, personality and background color, and the specifics of what information the NPC knows. Crafting a good NPC, especially one that can be portrayed by another member of the staff, is not directly related to the volume of text in the character background, and certain members of the team will probably be better at this than others.

Prop Wranglers: A prop wrangler's usefulness varies from game to game, but even a multi-GM tabletop game can benefit from the occasional physical object or sound effect that helps the imagination of the players. In live action games, especially full-costume games, the utility of props, costuming, and mood effects becomes much more pronounced.

A prop wrangler is responsible for making, buying, or otherwise obtaining the extra materials used to aid in suspension of disbelief. Those who have less interest in the literary arts used in other roles often favor the role of scrounging cool props or assembling them from scratch.

Factional Alignment

"Does he really want the umbral Phoenix to eat his character?"
"Probably; he won't be able to make it to the final game, so I'd imagine he wants to know what happens to his character. He was marked by the dreaming Phoenix so he knows he'll reincarnate. Plus, she made him immune to fire so he could come talk to her sister."
"Well okay. The umbral Phoenix will be so pleased; it's probably been forever since she's eaten anything that didn't burn to ashes in her throat!"

Another way to divide roles within the team is to align them along the intended divisions within the player and NPC groups. In many games, characters will be allied closely with those of the same race, class, or other faction. Often these factional groups have unique plotlines and histories that are distinct from the main plots of the campaign. In games that are designed to be player versus player to a significant degree, the "main plot" may be a pale shadow compared to the inter- and intra-factional plots.

In this role division, team members are generally each responsible for most of the tasks listed in the previous section, but only for their particular area of expertise.

PC Faction Masters: In the players' eyes, the most important of these areas is their own faction. The GM for a PC faction invents a great deal of the plot and player handouts for members of that faction. He or she is also the final word on rules or setting actions directly related to that faction.

For example, in a game where most of the PCs are fallen angels, old gods, or modern wizards, one team member might be in charge of each of those factions. When there is a dispute about the effects of an angelic power, or someone is trying to amass significant power amongst the angelic NPCs, the final decision would be made by the fallen angel GM.

The faction GM often plays important NPCs in the faction and writes supporting NPCs within that faction for the other staff members to portray. The team leader should be kept informed, and retains the ability to say no, but most of the time the faction GM is supreme in decisions about that faction. In particularly large games, multiple team members may create their own sub-team responsible for a faction.

NPC Faction Masters: In this setup, it is also often worthwhile to have team members assigned to aspects of the game outside of player character factions. Where the PC faction leaders frequently serve to entertain and arbitrate for particular PCs, the NPC faction leaders work to challenge and entertain the PCs as a whole.

These team members are often focused more on areas of the main plot than on internal PC plots. They come up with plots for antagonists, foils, and mysterious third parties that can be directed at the PCs.

In the example above, the game setting might feature a cult of mystical assassins that seek to eliminate angels, gods, and wizards alike. A single team member could be responsible for creating plots and NPCs for this group and making them feel like a robust threat rather than a simple monster of the week occurrence.

A problem with the factional model is that it can often be the source of a lot of intra-team drama. The division of roles should make the game better, not divide the staff against each other. The team leader should be deeply involved in preventing team members from becoming more attached to their faction than they are to the game as a whole.

The Game

"Alright, if your NPC dreamwraith can kill the Ravnos PC before my NPC demon can get him to sell his soul, you win."
"Sounds fair."
"But you won't know which of the characters I've written is the Ravnos."
"Oh, cool."

One of the most fun times I've had in a multi-GM situation was running the game referenced by the quote above. This particular division of roles brings out an interesting ability of having more than one GM; if designed properly, you can be just as surprised and just as goal oriented as the players.

In this division of roles, the main plot of the game is the conflict of different forces, each one controlled by a particular member of the team. Each team member agrees on victory conditions and what resources and tricks are allowed in order to get them. Then the game is divided up much like the factional roles, only along these resource lines rather than by faction.

It's tempting to play powerful, impressive NPCs leading the PCs towards these goals, but doing so can overshadow the players and reduce the fun that they have once they realize that they're just supporting cast. It's more conducive to everyone having fun to play supporting NPCs that nudge the PCs to take center stage and try to accomplish the victory conditions. The fun of the game comes in limiting one's fantastical GM powers to predetermined limits and attempting to outmatch your teammates in a game of skill.

This method of role allocation is probably best for one-shot games or for short-term plots within a game that normally uses other role divisions. The tendency to generate drama and conflict between team members is high if the competition continues for a long time. In the short term, though, it's really fun.

Logistics

"Can I spend XP?"

One role, or collection of roles, that is important to whatever style of game you choose is that of logistics. Often, this role falls to the leader by default. However, logistics can be taken on by any team member with the ability to organize and keep track of details.

The responsibilities of the logistics role vary from game to game, but many are constant. Games other than one-shots almost always reward the players with experience points and items. If no one is keeping track of these awards and on what they are spent for the staff, it becomes harder and harder to gauge the capabilities of the PCs and the temptation to cheat becomes great in larger games. In many large games, the players' sheets are recorded in a staff database and updated versions are printed out for the players each game. A team member in charge of logistics tracks and updates all of these sheets and, if necessary, makes sure they're ready to print.

Logistics can also include controlling game resources. In many games, players can use their statistics to craft items, acquire equipment, regain expended traits, and so on using defined rules. The individual in charge of logistics is usually the one that players go to in order to accomplish these tasks. This person tells the players the precise result of their actions and either gives them permission to update their character sheet or hands out cards that represent the resource. In games large enough that cheating is a concern, a signature or initials often accompanies these awards.

Finally, logistics also involves organizing and assessment before a game is run. The logician checks to make sure that all props, cards, papers, books, and printouts are packed and ready and makes sure that there are enough staff members and NPCs available to run the plots for the game. In games that allow physical contact, assuring the safety of the space and player items often falls to the logician. In games where players pay to play, the logician is usually in charge of taking and keeping track of the money.

The logistics role can be split amongst multiple individuals if necessary, as long as someone is taking care of it. Logistics is often taken for granted, but having someone to keep the game organized becomes more and more necessary the bigger it gets and the longer it runs. Having good logistics is often the deciding factor that makes a game seem professional and well-run to the players.

And that's all the roles that I can think of for now. Next month I'll talk about team member personalities and how they suit people to different roles and levels of responsibility within the group.