#game runners

I have almost certainly forgotten something.

DISCLAIMER: Before I start giving advice left right and centre, obviously there is no true way to run a game, I’m sure many crew rooms that don’t do these things are excellent, etc etc. This is both subjective and personal. This is obviously geared at refs and game runners. That being said, let’s crack on.

So, I tend to crew as many games as I play. This is because of two reasons, mostly. A) I love making games work for other people, being one of the buttons that makes a story happen. It makes me feel fulfilled and satisfied. B) I’m really poor and if I can’t afford to play a cool game, I’ll crew it. 

This has given me an insight into many, many game runner’s styles and crew rooms in general. It’s allowed me to form a dangerous thing - opinions. I’ve only ever had two truly terrible crewing experiences, so kudos to pretty much everyone I’ve worked for. The following list is things I think ought to be considered or included in crew rooms for optimum experience. They are in no particular order. 

1. CREW BRIEFS. Look, this is honestly the BIGGEST thing for me. Print out your crew briefs and stats. Make two copies. Put one in a folder. This folder lives in the crew room. It does not move from the crew room. If anybody moves it, you kill them. 

The second set can be folded up and kept with the crew members who need it, especially those with long and complicated briefs. It will stop them pestering the refs to doublecheck things. It will make everyone’s lives a million times easier. 

2. CREW SCHEDULES. You know that wonderful folder you have above? You’re going to put an event schedule in it. Sure, it’ll subject to change. But if your volunteers know when about they should be getting ready for certain encounters, it will save time. An for the love of the Gods, have a visible clock somewhere.

3. THE BASICS. Your job is to look after your crew. They are, after all, volunteers, doing you a favour. You should provide, budget allowing, things to make their experiences better and their comfort higher. A basic checklist follows.

- Food, including veggie and vegan options, as well as any other dietary requirements. 
- Drinks, including tea and coffee. 
- A first aid kit including painkillers, bandages, and plasters.
- Sanitary towels.
- Blankets. 
- Somewhere to sit. 
- A pony.

4. A REF PRESENT. Ideally, if you have the numbers, a ref that lives in the crew room is invaluable. Their jobs include: hustling people along, sending crew out on encounters, advising on costume/props, checking everyone is cared for, receiving debriefs and information, answering questions, adjusting plot/timings/stats when needed. 

5. DEBRIEFING. You need a set system for what happens when an NPC returns. If you’re super fancy, like PD, you’ll have a computer system for this exact thing, but most games won’t have such luxury. Some alternatives are: a laptop to log things in, a notebook to make notes in, a ref tasked with receiving such information.

6. MISTAKE MANAGEMENTandCREW AGENCY. Related to the above, your crew are only human. Mistakes will happen, and you need to decide how to deal with them. A popular approach is retconning, of approaching the player who received false information and telling them to forget it. While this is easy, I also encourage the method of refs sticking by whatever their NPCs said when possible. This gives a level of trust to crew that stops stilted interactions and hurrying off to doublecheck with a ref.

7. MAKE UP, COSTUME, AND PROPS. There are a few bits I encourage refs to bring as stock if the budget allows; make up, tabards, some weapons, a few base layers. Other than that, you want to make crew aware ahead of time what you expect them to bring.

8. PREPARATION. Following from the above, if possible, make a facebook group for the crew, and publish information such as brief, schedules, plot and rules as ahead of time as you can to allow them to prepare and gain familiarity.

9. REPORTING SYSTEM. Make sure your crew are familiar with the procedure if they would like to make complaints during the game. Common complaints will include unpulled blows, players flouncing rules and aggression leveled at them. Make sure they know how you will treat complaints, and what possible consequences will be. Additionally, making them aware of who they need to ask if they want something, or need an accessibility adjustment. 

10. R AND R. You will provide breaks for crew, both scheduled and on demand. Let me tell you now, if you insist someone keep working when they are tired/sore/unhappy, it’s a bit of a dick move. Breaks can take several forms. Chilling in the crew room, using a R&R character to get some casual roleplay in, or making a pick up and play folders for easy, low intensity crew roles. Be sure crew are aware of what the acceptable limits of all of these things are - for instance, an r&r character probably shouldn’t have a huge amount of power.

11. Honesty about noncom roles. Look, in a ideal world, there would be plenty of noncom roles for disabled folk in all games. That’s not the situation we are in, and some games will not have a vast number or selection. Please, please be up front about this fact. There’s nothing more disappointing than being told there’s a place for non-combatants and then sitting in the crew room alone for hours.