Character Reports: what is the point?

[FantasyWriter]

If you tell people what to do, [and they actually do it instead of laughing in your face,] you're a leader.

[Nyr]

Maybe as a suggestion for the template, instead of using the term "leader", use a label that's broader in scope? Then you don't have to run the risk of people being confused what entails being a "leader" character is.

Yep, like I said, we'd make it so that you could select either a Leader Report or a Non-Leader Report (name pending).  It's just a mockup of what it would look like.

What is a leader? The top dog, or anyone in the clan with "leader" in their Score.

Sponsored leaders of clans (nobles, templars, military leaders, etc) or non-sponsored leaders of clans (tribal leaders, GMH agents, the guy that made Byn Sergeant because everyone else fell off of the Shield Wall) would fall into that category, as well as people that lead smaller unclanned groups.

"Use of bank accounts". What do you require for this?  When several leaders are feeding into it and a lot of floats. Is this like....an accounting?

This is requesting information on how the leader actually used the bank account, if at all.  We aren't asking for the leader to account for everyone else's use of the account, just their own.

I imagine reports from lonesome indies are thumb nails, in case their imm looks down and thinks,
"Who's this dude?"
Yes?

We do want to keep tabs on what you are doing if you are a lonesome indie.  With that said, if you are a lonesome indie and not engaged in a leadership capacity where other folks are relying heavily on what you are doing as a leader, we don't necessarily need or want weekly reports from you.  A monthly one is probably going to be just fine.

[aeglaeca]

Is it better to submit separate character reports per upcoming plot or put it all in one weekly report?

[HavokBlue]

Just to clarify, will non-sponsored leaders be required to send weekly reports? I understand that while currently encouraged, it's not technically mandatory.

[Saellyn]

"Look I'm not a leader, these fucking idiots just keep following me and doing what I tell them to do."

"You still need to send in weekly reports. You're a LEADER now."

"But..."

"No buts!"

This is probably why non-sponsored/clan leaders aren't required to do that.

[Nyr]

Is it better to submit separate character reports per upcoming plot or put it all in one weekly report?

Definitely the latter.

Just to clarify, will non-sponsored leaders be required to send weekly reports? I understand that while currently encouraged, it's not technically mandatory.

What do you mean by non-sponsored leaders?

[HavokBlue]

non-sponsored leaders of clans (tribal leaders, GMH agents, the guy that made Byn Sergeant because everyone else fell off of the Shield Wall) would fall into that category

I think you guys have stated in the past that it's not technically mandatory for leaders who achieved their position in-game rather than through sponsored role call to provide weekly reports.

I'm just curious if they will now be considered mandatory in the same sense that a role-call sponsored leader is expected to provide weekly reports.

[Nyr]

If you rise to the ranks of leadership in some clan IC, you are still supposed to send in weekly reports.  That has pretty much always been the case.  

We do want reports to be less tedious for everyone (hence this thread and the suggestions provided).  A weekly report for a leader needn't be super verbose and expansive--it just needs to summarize what's going in (in case their staff was not watching or did not see it) and what the player and clan needs from their clan staff.

I'll provide some examples that I've used in the past and how I would revise them now in the next post I make.

[Nyr]

Previous example of a non-leader PC I had, reporting to staff.  The report:  about 1000 words.

At the top, I put a summary.

Amos manifests due to a perfect storm of bad experiences at the RPT.
Amos' short and long-term plans.
Amos' patriotism takes a swan dive and may not fully recover.

Each one of these were expanded upon below in great, great detail.  I'm not a leader, and I don't actually need anything from my staff, but I'm going into great detail about what happened.  As far as I am concerned, I'm filing the report because I'm supposed to--I'm a player and a staffer and I should be communicating regularly with my staff and stuff.

What I'd change:

If I'm going to want to write about the IC stuff that happened anyway, I may as well write a biography entry for those things.  If I'm not going to write about those things now, I can make a note of them and expand on them later if staff asks...or maybe I can do bios one day when I don't feel like playing but do feel like rounding out my character's psyche by filling up some bio notes.  Then I can mention them later to let staff know (in a month, for my next report--or in a couple of weeks, if something major ends up happening that they should know about).

How I'd rewrite it now:

Amos manifests due to a perfect storm of bad experiences at the RPT.
-- here's generally what happened to cause it, limited to a few sentences.
-- I wrote up a biography entry related to it if you want to read it, it is here <title>

Amos' short and long-term plans.
-- short term plans, summarized in a few sentences.
-- long term plans, summarized in a few sentences.
-- I wrote up a bio explaining why these are his plans, you can read that if you want to here <title>

Amos' patriotism.
-- what he's thinking and why this matters to him, summarized into a few sentences.
-- I wrote up a bio with more detail here if you want to read that.  <title>

The whole thing is probably now going to be (at least) half the size of the previous report.  (A 2/3 reduction wouldn't be unrealistic in this case, really.)  It is now easier to read, the same info is communicated (though not to the same level of detail), and ultimately, I still don't need anything, staff can still respond "Thanks for the report, all looks well, you're doing fine, let us know if you need anything."

[nauta]

I think moving most things to BIOs is a great idea.  

Here's why: I started writing character reports for the very simple reason that I wanted staff to know what I (and others around me) were up to, with the hope that it would give storytellers fodder for storytelling.  I would've done this in the Biography, but what I inferred from the "communication" bit in the karma doc was that this involved character reports.  By the time I wrote up the character report, I was no longer interested in writing up a BIO, and besides, I thought staff wouldn't read the BIO anyway.

So, if staff shift to reading the BIO (and publicly say as much) when they are interested in the goings-on of a given PC, I would then write my BIOs as if they were character reports, reserving for character reports mere questions/requests that I had on an OOC level.

[Nyr]

The leader one I'm referring to is from prior to the request tool being a thing, but here is the summary:

This PC is dead for whatever reason.  This other templar is okay with Amos now.
This other PC and mine are on okay terms.
The clan contract is almost over and done with:  ready to push for an agreement of some sort between the House and that clan.
Amos has heard of a problem with this tribe--they need food, don't have enough hunters, and not enough training.  He wants to fix that in goodwill towards an alliance.
Amos wants to have this other PC killed.
Amos is ticked off at <X> and wants to do something about them.
Amos is still ticked off at <X> and wants to have them eradicated.
Amos is getting antsy about his House and the templarate.
Relations are pretty much the same across the board.  Amos hates pretty much everyone.

Each of the above were expanded on in their own subsequent paragraphs.  It probably took up as much space as that other report I mentioned, but in this one, I didn't make it clear what I needed from staff.  I'm not really sure I did need anything from staff, rereading it now, but it sure seems like I might have.  I should've had a section for questions. 

How I'd change it now:

Same summary as above.  Slimmed down explanations.  If I use the template, I don't have anything new for HR stuff or for banking stuff.  If there are IC things that are being reported that are relevant to my PC's superiors (like, you know...who I want to kill, how close I am to doing that, etc) then that should definitely be mentioned.  Seeing as how my PC is apparently pissed off at everyone, maybe I should replace the summary sections with a general header "people Amos wants to kill," and then summarize each person or group by name, followed by why.  If I still want to write about what my PC is feeling I should probably put that in bios.  Ultimately, I haven't made it clear what I need from staff or whether I have things that need their attention, so I should highlight that by specifically asking them to do so.  If they need more info than I have provided, it's simple for them to reply, "hey, you wanted us to review this, but you don't have a bio about it and you don't have any real details on it.  Can you explain for us?"  Then I can either write a bio (if I was going to anyway) or refer to the bio (if it exists but they didn't see it) or provide a more detailed version of what they need to review (if I'm not planning to write a bio at this time or ever, as it isn't really bio-worthy).

[HavokBlue]

That makes sense.

I think I have a problem with being overly-verbose in reports because I feel the need to share as many details about the what and why of an event as possible to avoid confusion.

[Rokal]

That makes sense.

I think I have a problem with being overly-verbose in reports because I feel the need to share as many details about the what and why of an event as possible to avoid confusion.

Same deal for me, but at the same time, I know i can cut back on it some, reading over this topic has given me some ideas to better format a char report!

[flurry]

After I write a report, I go back through, line by line, and trim out unnecessary words, sentences, and sometimes entire paragraphs. There are always things that can go, even if it's just meaningless modifiers like "actually" and "really." Usually it's more than that, like details that, upon reflection, aren't adding anything truly important.

Quite a while ago, I realized that being concise and organized in character reports meant that fewer things would be overlooked or skimmed past. Just stick to what's genuinely important, and that's what will get noticed.

[Majikal]

I've always busted up my reports into a few categories

Current goals, completed goals, clan business, pc relations, ooc stuff.

Bullet points and bolding/underline where appropriate. Always had good feedback on my reports but they're usually a pretty quick read that just get the points across. If staff want further clarification on something, they've always just asked me in replies. Don't flood them with useless information and they'll be more on top of what your pc is up to I've noticed.

[valeria]

I think templates is a good idea.  I would prefer to keep using my own template, but I could probably adjust if templates were mandatory.

I only have one concern.  I couldn't get behind turning every single character reflection on an IC event into a biography.  I prefer to do my biographies in my character's voice.  It takes me ten minutes to write a three to four sentence summary of some IC event that happened.  It takes me usually an hour or two to write a good biography entry, sometimes after multiple weeks of planning.

I guess I would like to see examples about where the line would be drawn between (this is what should be in a biography) and (this is fine to have in a character report).

[Taven]

I also have a problem with too much verbosity in my reports, though it's improved. I'm sure I am still one of the longer report-writers and I worry about that sometimes. But, my advice to avoid too-lengthy reports is to write everything once. Then read it. Do you need all that crazy detail? No? Then skim it out.

I also really like referencing full biographies in reports, as has been suggested here, as it allows for staff to read as much or as little as they want. The problem with that is that I don't always have the energy to keep up-to-date on bios and they're not always something I can do with each character. If I wrote all the bios I wanted it would be a huuuuuge chunk of time. Still, if you have the time, I recommend it.

As to report formatting and templates, the idea makes me a little wary. I have a rough template that I use, but what I actually need to report depends on who the PC is.

This is a character report format I tend to favor:

Character Name, Report ##

Introduction

Anything I need to comment on about the report itself here. Usually a line or two.


Responses/Questions

Sometimes broken into two sections if needed. Always limit questions if possible. If it's not an immediate concern and can wait until a next report, if spreading them out makes staff work load easier, do that.

1. Sath's Research on Firekanks. What does Sath know about firekanks? With the sudden apperance of firekanks burning down the barracks again, Lord Longliver would approach them to see if there are any historic instances of it. (See section for details).

2. Barracks Rebuilding Party. Is it okay with the House to host a party that may include multiple other organizations within the estate? Lord Longliver hopes to do this to speedily rebuild the barracks. (See section for details).


Finances

A record of spending if needed. Not to be concerned with any normal mundane spending, but larger things such as pulling any coin out of the clan account, or donating any coin to the clan account. Could possibly touch on larger purchases, though generally I keep that to a main section.


Plot and General Follow-Up

Ongoing plot? Stick it here.

Barrack's Rebuilding -- As you know, firekanks invaded the estate and burned down the barracks. Lord Longliver is furious! After some consideration, he's decided it might be best to utilize the efforts of others to assist in manual labor. If you give commoners food, they're more then willing to do hard labor, right? Lady Partytosser thinks so, and he's working closely with her on this. Oash made snide comments about a lack of fireproofing, so Longliver is considering burning something of theirs down. He also wants to research into a fire-proof coating for the barracks. Sure, it might make more sense to use something nonflammable like stone, but that doesn't fit with his image. He'll try contacting Lord Cleanshaven Rennik (who is not nearly as awesome as his templar relative, but may have the House connections to help). I'll let you know how that goes. Feel free to ask questions as needed.

Spy Information Network -- Amos has successfully infiltrated House Salarr, and from there is developing northern contacts. Right now he has limited contact with Longliver, in order to build the persona. On a whole, it seems the northies aren't nearly wary enough. But what do you expect from a city that lets the enemy become a NOBLE? After Amos gets enough information about northern status, Longliver can send in the big guns. Infiltrating Uaptal may have been a failure, but it's been a few years and nobody will remember Shadowstalker's face anymore. Longliver looks forward to this gleefully.

Plots with no progress: Stealing Lady Strutalot's dress (gypsies contact died), Militia-House shared lessons (templar is AWOL), Tek Serak Improvements (waiting on word back from Tor)


Other

This generally covers new things or things as needed. If I don't have a lot, sometimes I'll fill it out by touching on impressions of people my character knows, or their hopes for advancement and plans. If I've already done that, it doesn't always have to be here, especially if they have a lot of other pots cooking.

Firekanks -- With the firekank assault, Longliver has concerns that they may have entered the estate through the sewers. He's hired the byn to investigate, putting aside his misgivings about Sergeant Boozealot. He also had a hunter, Malik, mention that he's heard of firekanks before and reference an old battle with them. If that's true, Sath may have more information he can use. He's not sure what the cost will be, but keeping the estate intact is important. He plans to spin it as researching a threat to the city, to gain himself more prestige.

Lady Strutalot's New Aide -- Strutalot got a new aide that Longliver detests. They ignored him and didn't bow in the tavern, making up an excuse about how it was crowded, even after looking directly at him. He thinks this an intentional slight, given their history, and in his frothing anger is considering hiring a Guild assassin. Too bad that there's not a lot to be found. He may have to endure angry twitching eyes on this one.

If I'm not playing someone heavily involved in events, my reports may happen a lot less often. I typically save them up until I actually have anything of substance to say. I'm not sure how a "leader" versus "non-leader" template would vary. It really depends on the PC for what's even relevant to report.

[Zoan]

Are you thinking of adding these sections as part of the template for the request tool, like for special applications where it shows sdesc, mdesc etc? That's if you haven't already; I haven't done a character report in forever. I feel if you add structure prematurely to the report, at least as a guide, it'll help.

[valeria]

I thought I'd toss a redacted copy of one of my usual templates out there from a leadership character I had a couple years ago.  It's pretty much still the template I use today:

------
OOC Summary -
1) Introduction
2) Summary
3) New Biography
4) Questions

IC Summary -
5) Research
6) Scroll to (NPC)
7) X Assignment, Continued
... (other plot relevant stuff, continues to item #10)

OOC Section -
1) Introduction
(Brief update on my state of mind playing the character.)

2) Week in Summary
12-06-12   Conversed with X.  Questioned X, caught up with X.  Briefed X on plans for magickal threats.
12-07-12   Chatted with X, pissed her off.  Dealt with X's desk.  Was called to a breed having killed recruit X.
12-08-12   Discussed magickal threats with X.  Spent some social time with X.
12-09-12  Caught up with X.  Discussed hiring Byn for X.
12-10-12   Chastened X for wearing magicks in the city.  Caught up by X on gemmed.  Drank with X.

No hires, no fires, no clan bank account use.

500 (self-suggested) fine from X for death of X
100 fine on X for wearing magick in the city

3) New Biography
Field Journal, X Account -- this is just a copy of something that X wrote in his field journal

4) Questions
I've noticed there are X at X.  Would I know what those are?  Or know better than to experiment with them?

IC Section -
5) Research
X has spent time in the Library, attempting to research X.

6) Scroll to (NPC)
A copy of a scroll delivered to (NPC) by X:
(A copy of the scroll contents went here.)

7) X Assignment, Continued
(About 5 sentences on plot-relevant stuff.)

(It continues like this through 3 more plot-relevant updates.)

[seidhr]

Biographies are awesome.  As a player I under-used them and now that I'm on staff and I've seen how certain players use biographies it kind of floors me how complete a picture it paints for a PC.  They don't have to be epic novels really even lengthy at all, but they are a chronological stuff that is filtered down to the guts of what makes a character tick.  Pretty cool if done well.  There is at least one person posting in this thread that is a case study in how to write awesome bios. (and it's not Nyr )

[Down Under]

Just submitted a report using one of the basic 'Leader Templates'.

I spent perhaps 20-30 minutes less on the report -- I think that's worth it overall. I didn't have as much fun writing it, maybe because it seemed a little more like office work than something I could make entertaining for myself (and for the Staff member reading it).

I think less time spent on reports is a good thing for Staff, and it encourages me to write more Biographies.

[MeTekillot]

can a pk report just be the five lines before and after a death blow? possibly with an appended "suck it" and a cc to the clans of people you pk'd?

[Down Under]

can a pk report just be the five lines before and after a death blow? possibly with an appended "suck it" and a cc to the clans of people you pk'd?

I don't think a PK report needs to be anything more than:

I killed person, here's how.

If it's maybe questionable circumstances, here's why.

Cheers!

[Nyr]

Just submitted a report using one of the basic 'Leader Templates'.

I spent perhaps 20-30 minutes less on the report -- I think that's worth it overall. I didn't have as much fun writing it, maybe because it seemed a little more like office work than something I could make entertaining for myself (and for the Staff member reading it).

That's a good point overall:  it is a bit like office work if you strip out or summarize most of the IC stuff (leaving only relevant and concise IC things) and get down to the basics that staff needs to know.  Reports are meant to inform staff of what your character is doing and to some degree what the player is doing.  They need to get that information across in a clear, summarized, concise manner.

If you were enjoying writing IC stuff as a way to get into your character before?



We'll still enjoy reading them.  There have been times when I've staffed players that bio extensively on a weekly basis.  It's a good window into the IC part of the character because everything in bios IS the IC part of the character--their thoughts, their emotions, their history, who they like, who they hate, etc.  These are slices of character life that we actually don't really see unless we're watching the PC 24/7 (which we are not).  Putting them in reports...that is a bit of a mixed bag.  I have seen reports where it works--or at least, it was done and separated properly, but still made for a lot of reading and processing to get to the essential details.  I've also seen some reports where the IC parts bleed into OOC reporting and we're not sure if the PC is pissed off about something or the player is pissed off about it.

[Nyr]

can a pk report just be the five lines before and after a death blow? possibly with an appended "suck it" and a cc to the clans of people you pk'd?

I don't think a PK report needs to be anything more than:

I killed person, here's how.

If it's maybe questionable circumstances, here's why.

Cheers!

Just answer the basics and you're good to go for the most part.

I killed (what?) Amos, the tall, muscular man in our unit (who?) for repeated insubordination and theft--mentioned in previous reports (why?).  This happened last night (when?) while we were out on a training mission (where?).  I stabbed him in the face with my face-stabbing knife (how?), and the rest of the unit seemed pretty much okay with it since they subdued him so I could do it.  Let me know if you have any questions!