It has come to my attention that many people try making an RPG without actually knowing how to get it done. They apparently live by the ‘if you build it, they will come’ mindset.
That doesn’t work in reality, kids. Especially when you don’t even bother to build ‘it’. Slapping together a board and putting a name on it doesn’t count as building anything. From the sheer number of RPGs like that, you’d think a monkey could make them. Lord knows a monkey could run them better. There are three major components to building and maintaining a good site. The leadership, the game, and the members. This is written from the leader’s point of view, from someone who’s spent a year and a half learning what not to do and finally hitting upon the right stuff.
I take a lot of my leadership habits from what I've learned, both on other boards and in real-life. I've learned a number of things over my years on this Earth. I’m certainly not perfect, and I’m usually a heckuvalot more involved, more heavy-handed than I probably should be, but damned if I’m going to change my ways this late in the game.
I follow the doctrine that the leadership, the staff, is to appear of one mind. They should appear to be unified in action and direction. From the members’ perspectives, we should never argue nor should we fight. Arguing weakens the position of the losing staffer, while fighting just plain sets a bad example. If we do not present a unified front, then the members will see us as weak and indecisive. If they see us as weak and indecisive, then a lot of the necessary idolization goes away, resulting in the members respecting the staff less and our power to run the site decreasing. They’ll simply walk away and find a different game to play.
That is not to say that there should be no argument. Or rather, that there should be no debate. Argument is simply heated, emotional verbal attacks. Debating is presenting a case and debunking the opposition cases. This is, after all, what is allowed on the board. Just because the members cannot see it does not mean that the rules suddenly cease to apply. We are to be role models for them, and we can’t do that if we’re constantly bickering behind their backs. See the above for what happens then.
This is a philosophy I have acquired from the military. They teach officers not to berate someone in front of their juniors. It makes them lose credibility; makes the men lose trust in them. This is easily transferred to the civilian world. I have stated and referenced what happens then. It is not the ranking officer who loses credibility in these exchanges, but rather the junior. Similarly, when an Admin has to chew out the Staff where the members can see, it makes the Staff look weak and ineffective while the Admin starts to look like a heavy-handed dictator.
That’s not what the staff is here for. We are here to keep the peace and keep the game running smoothly for the members’ enjoyment. We may enjoy our jobs, and we may be able to play the game, but the job of making things fun for everybody else comes first. We are not paid to do it, but this is a job that demands more than just about any out there. The job requires hours upon hours of work and effort poured into it, it requires creativity, and it requires a degree of professionalism that is rare amongst humans in general, much less teenagers. That is why members respect us. They respect us because they know that we work hard and do what few can do just so that they can have a game to play in their free time.
The game has to be entertaining. It has to be fresh and it has to be well-balanced. You don’t necessarily need to make up an entirely new system each time you make a new board, but you do have to learn to ditch what doesn’t work. I have noticed, however, that people come for the game and stay for the community. In the early stages, it is up to the leadership to maintain this community and direct it down the path they want it to grow. You can’t simply sit back and wait for members to post; you have to take action yourself. By the time the members get to the board, you’d better have the entire game finished. It doesn’t necessarily have to be polished to a high shine, but they should be able to get all the information they need on-site. Don’t ever steal from another site, either. If you’re swiping their ideas, your members are better off simply joining the site you’re stealing from. You will never be able to make a game better than the one you’re stealing from.
Your game is also going to need a gimmick. Something that makes it stand out from the crowd as an original piece of work. Without the gimmick, the site will do nothing but fail. There simply is no other alternative, no happy medium.
For members, I’ve found that posting ads doesn’t work. Best case scenario, you get a handful of people. Worst case scenario, those people are morons who aren’t good enough to make it on the site you’re advertising on. You do it wrong, and you’ll wind up in trouble on the other site.
No, you have to court members. You have to single out the people you want, those players who have creativity and intelligence, the personality type you are looking for. Befriend them. You don’t want anybody on your board to not be at least on good terms with you, because otherwise that breeds dissension and distrust. Bad things for a game to get. Befriend them, and then let them see your game. It’s slow, it’s difficult, but courting members has a much higher success rate than simply blindly advertising.
Naturally, the staff has to be the epitome of what they call for. They have to be smart and well-liked. If you honestly are not bright, then don’t start up a game. Join someone else’s and let them do all the work of bringing you entertainment.
Make a spite-site and I’ll track you down and kill you. Those sites made when a group of members leaves another board never last long, are almost always inferior, and are quite simply imitations of the original, altered to “Fix what was broken with the other site.”
I'm lookin' at you, Jerao.