Initiates

[Hroderich Gottfrei]

Here, we'll discuss possible routes of Initiation - a low barrier of entry to the Guild that weeds out a large portion of charity abuse and helps us get to know/decide on someone before we bring them in to all of the shiny awesome that is being a Keeper.

My initial thoughts: You'll need a sponsor and/or application. If you do not have a sponsor bringing you in, a player must be willing to give you a shot and agree to sponsor you/mentor you for your Initiate period. Joining may also be contingent upon your reputation (mechanical and otherwise) with Guild Members - if your reputation is too low, you may be denied. I could see a case for Appeals in this situation though. You'd need a 3-7 day period of Initiate status.

Thoughts? Alternatives? Criticisms of Initiate-level activity in general or specific? Concerns?

[Lorhayden]

Initiates - Totally down with a 3-7 day waiting period in 7 days you should have played with at the least 3 Wardens. On day 7 a person with promotion ability, Warden/Guardian or higher promotes the Initiate to Keeper after 3 Wardens say they are good.

[Leonidas Wahrheit]

The old Merc. Corp. that I joined had a very bizarre, but relatively effective, initiation process which involved:

1. Filling out an application and posting it on a specific board for initiates.
2. Questions (SO MANY QUESTIONS) from as many of the current members as they saw fit.
3. A preliminary vote to grant that individual access to run with us.
4. At least three in-game sessions with various group members and at least one officer to judge the individual's personality.
5. A final vote on that individual's status as an initiate.

[Hroderich Gottfrei]

That's not a bad system, especially for the Meta side of things. We could play it off as having been a Letter of Application sent to us and probationary missions/something in character to explain the process.

[Nymerias]

Maybe decrease it in intensity a little bit. I got a more open vibe when I initially found you guys, and I don't think that should get lost. As espionage and the like are going to be a part of this game, I don't think anyone would really question having a Initiate phase, but as long as we don't make it sound too intimidating to pass.

[Dario Tashavan]

Honestly, I view Keeper as being an initiate phase. Maybe I'm a little unclear where the delineation is between the two?

[Leonidas Wahrheit]

Fair enough. Maybe drop the preliminary voting stage and just let them start running with us. I'd still like to have people fill out an app. so that all of our current members can get a handle on the individual and introduce themselves.

[Hroderich Gottfrei]

Initiation should, basically (if we keep it) be a "Hmmm, this person isn't a murderhobo/klepto... Alright, welcome aboard!" Maybe done/said with more fancy, but that's the gist.

[Leonidas Wahrheit]

Thus why we have a small application process for that individual to introduce him or herself to the Guild as a whole. I still stand by running with the person in-game to judge their personality. It's easy to BS an application. We had one guy in the Merc. Corp write out this glowing application and the first couple of sessions he played with us, he seemed pretty decent.

That is until we discovered he had anger issues and often took that out on some of our members for in-game mistakes. Above all, I absolutely want to make sure this Guild has friendly and helpful members within its ranks.

[Nymerias]

Looking back through the posts I think I'm the one guilty of using the term Initiate first. I suggested it based off of how Steel and Light have training periods.

If Keepers are the initiate phase, and the goal is to be a Warden, then it begs the question why aren't we the Wardens of the Circle. I remember reading somewhere when I first joined (maybe I'm remembering incorrectly) that Warden was "like an officer". In my mind then the vast majority of people should be Keepers. Which makes sense as the name is Keepers of the Circle.

I guess I really feel like Keepers should have some level of voting but not as much as a Warden. I know there are lots of ideas going around about checks and balances of elected positions. I think those would end at the Warden level and not leek down to Keeper. While something like, should we join these other people and declare war on that new little evil settlement that just popped up, would be a vote open to the Keeper level.

The Initiate level would then be quite temporary and designed for training time and or giving Shadow a little time to give them a background check.

[Leonidas Wahrheit]

Agreed, Nymerias. That's exactly what I was thinking: initiate is just a temporary training phase "title." Also, I agree with you about the Keepers. I think we initially had it in mind to make sure that all major Guild decisions enabled every member (from Guardian to Keeper) to vote and since the Keepers will be the majority of our membership base, they could, theoretically, alter major Guild decisions.

As far as how much power they have, I'll have to look that up. I could've sworn we had a document running around with that information.

[Nymerias]

Also, how are you planning on trying to do ranks in-game? I know you can't actually know because there isn't a system yet, but what's the plan? I thought it would be a simple tiered system of just Keeper, Warden, etc. All of the of x ring stuff would be done here on the boards?

[Leonidas Wahrheit]

I always assumed we would try to keep it as simple as possible in-game. As far as the delineations of other titles go, we'd probably keep that on the forums. That's just me, though. I figured we would absolutely try to have certain titles up in-game so members could identify who's who and ask questions, get help, etc.

We had also discussed rings/capes and other in-games items with certain color schemes in order to identify which rank is which. That's another idea.

[Nymerias]

Having the in-game Initiate rank I think is a really good idea just so we can throw anyone who is interested an invite and say "Sure, come hang out with us." Then they can get to know the system, meet people, pick a ring, etc.

Any of us that has filled out a Character Submission has essentially filled out an application of sorts.

[Hroderich Gottfrei]

Nym, that's a fantastic idea. I could get on board for that. There was a discussion last night between me, Cal, Leo, and Bristol (Leo's tabletop campaign was last night) about this whole topic. We've got some ideas, but I'm still munching and crunching on how to present them in some way that makes sense.