Character Reports: what is the point?

[Nyr]

Background:  Character reports were intended to inform staff about things that players were doing with their characters when staff may not have been around to see it.  Over time, this has evolved into a system in the request tool, and expectations have arisen on both sides of the player/staff equation--regardless of how they came about.  Here's what I mean.

Expectations from players and staff:

• Report regularity is important.  Leaders must report every week, and if regular PCs want to, that's fine as well.  Plus, this is the only way staff that might not see your RP can see your RP.
• Too short of a report is bad, too long of a report is bad, but there's a Goldilocks zone in between.
• You have to report (and report regularly) to be noticed.
• If you don't file lengthy (or regular) reports, you won't get karma.
• If staff doesn't respond to every part of a report (regardless of how lengthy), this may provoke a negative reaction with the player.  This leads to some staff doing more with responses and other staff doing less, and players developing their own opinions of staff members based on how verbose their responses are.

These expectations have changed the reality of reporting and reports (in general) are taking up larger and larger amounts of player and staff time.

We would like to see that change.  Here are some suggestions that different staff members have come up with that should help the process out.

First, some updated guidelines on reporting:

Q:  Who should report?

A:  Leaders, specifically, on a weekly basis.  Everyone else may report, but weekly reports are not required, and in fact, less-frequent reports are encouraged (a once-per month update would be fine).  If something major happens that needs staff response or notification, feel free to report at that time.

Q:  What should be in a report?

A: The goal of reporting is to inform staff of things that they would either need to or want to know about regarding your character's activities, as well as any specific support you need from your clan staff.  In this case, provide the relevant basics and provide more details if requested.  If you are a leader, there are some basics we do need to know about that will help us out.  Recruitment, use of clan accounts, specific leadership-related things from the past week, and then any needs or questions for staff.  We have a suggested report template for you to use if you wish.  Keep in mind that reports (while useful, and in some cases, very much required) should not take the place of playing and role-playing.

Q:  What should not be in a report?

A: Anything that could instead be placed as a biography entry.  Before, we have allowed this to be in reports.  We would prefer that players spend more time actually playing than reporting, or (if you want to write about more personal, emotional, relational, or historical details) place that in a biography entry.  Instead of detailing some IC feelings in a lengthy manner in a report, you should instead create a biography entry and then reference the name of the entry in your report so that staff can go read it if need be.  This will also be provided in an example and template.

Q:  How will staff respond to reports?

A: We will no longer be providing in-depth responses where they are not called for.  It may well be that your report gets answered with "thank you for the report" and nothing else, particularly if there is nothing for staff to add to your report.  You are informing us about what you are doing and you have done so.  We, in turn, will be putting summaries of relevant info from your report on the staff board if needed.  If we respond in this way it does mean we have read your report. This is not a slight-- we have limited time and we would prefer to utilize that time to do things like animate, plan for plots, and support your plots in-game rather than play a "request tool mini-game".  If you have specific questions, those should definitely be answered.  If we see things we need to handle, we will definitely reach out to you on it.  We are not going to provide analytical critique of reports unless we see a need to do so.

More in the next post about templates.

[Nyr]

So, with that said, what kind of templates do we suggest?  What does that mean?  We'd make it so that you could select either a Leader Report or a Non-Leader Report (name pending).  If you select either, you'll get the automated template for it.  We might (if Nathvaan thinks so) be able to make the template opt-out or opt-in (so that you can just turn it off if you have your own that is better). 

Well, right now, here are two proposed ones:

For Leaders:

Recruitment, Discharge, and Management

• Hirings:
• Firings:
• Promotions/demotions:
• Questions/comments:

Clan Account

• Withdrawals:
• Deposits:
• Questions/comments:

Interaction and Report

• Who, What, When, Where, Why and How:  Provide a summary of what happened over the past week.  If any particular description seems as though it could be (or might become) verbose, it may be better to put it in as a biography entry and reference it instead.
• Plots and Plans:  Briefly describe what you plan to do next week, or in general.
• Questions, comments and/or staff needs:   Ask any questions you might have, comment about previous reports and let the staff know what you currently need.

I know there are three sections for questions/comments.  That might be too much, or maybe it works for some people.  I was thinking in this case that you might have questions related to HR stuff and could put them in that spot, or questions about the bank account and want to put them in that spot...we could probably cut that out and just use a separate section for questions.

For non-leaders:

Interaction and Report

• Who, What, When, Where, Why and How:  Provide a summary of what happened over the past <period of time, probably a month would be standard?>.  If any particular description seems as though it could be (or might become) verbose, it may be better to put it in as a biography entry and reference it instead.
• Plots and Plans:  Briefly describe what you plan to do next <period of time> or in general.
• Questions, comments and/or staff needs:   Ask any questions you might have, comment about previous reports and let the staff know what you currently need.

What kind of template would you suggest?  What sort of report ideas do you have?

[Nyr]

Additionally, here are some biography template ideas and bio suggestions from Nergal:

- Pick a perspective for all bios of that character (first or third person) for consistency

Bio entry type: Historical
- Discuss what has happened to the PC since the last bio was written
- Discuss thoughts and feelings of the PC regarding these events
- Discuss future goals of the PC

Bio entry type: Relationship piece
- Pick a character important to yours
- Write about the relationship between your PC and that character
- Write about recent events that have shaped that relationship
- Update the relationship in future bios, if necessary

[Tetra]

Someone told me my report format was nice to read, basically the same thing already posted, but here is the revised version to fit this new model of reporting.

Hello, staff.

This is a character report for Fancypants, the new aide to junior noble of Snobby House.  

~~~~~


[IC]
1. Relevant Stuff That Is Happening
a) Political Stuff
b) Interpersonal Stuff
c) Other Stuff


[OOC]

2. Questions/Staff Needs
3. Goals/Plans(A general overview of plot direction for the PC)

These used to be separated into IC and OOC for ease of reading, but I suspect with the shift of information into bio entries that will be unnecessary to outline.

[Barzalene]

This is good. Except now people won't get to be thoroughly entertained by Taijan's awesome report responses. They were always worth the price of admission.

[Dresan]

I think this is good shift as well. Reports had become something of a beast to write, shifting that to bios and just leaving the important stuff to submit through reports is more than fine. Especially now as the player population looks to be crawling upwards to what seems to be record highs at peak outside of an RPT or HRPT.  


As long as there is a solid way for staff to find out and understand why my character is doing what its doing, or behaving the way it is without having to ask me directly, it's all good.

[Delusion]

The IC/OOC division is absolutely necessary, surely, Tetra? I know on my characters, there's stuff I tell staff that my character wouldn't tell anyone IC. When I have stuff in an IC section, it tends to be stuff that would be relayed to my character's IC superiors etc.

Not a fan of the idea of biographies. I remember talking to a person who introduced me to Armageddon years ago who seemed to produce them in vast quantities, and some people on the GDB claim to as well. I doubt I'd turn out more than one every couple months, and it would probably be a very dry summary, at most.

[Semper]

If an important meeting happens IG, I have thought of sending in a log of the conversation, and throughout the log write what my character is thinking or update staff on the details of the conversation that are not spoken but implied. Would something like this still be considered a character report?

[Semper]

What about creating a separate "Leader's Report", which would have a management updates section (recruit/discharge/deaths), clan account section, ooc reports to staff (what is needed, questions, comments), and ic reports to superiors (short, concise reports about what your leader has been doing, as if reporting to their superior in a business meeting). The leaders report would be expected to be filled about once a week (or as needed) by leader pcs and because it's short and with high priority things, players can expect a response within the next week.

Then there is the current Character Report, which is where you would explain to staff your character's motives, a summary of what has happened to your character the past three to four RL weeks, and current goals/plans/plots that DO NOT require staff input. If you had bio entries during this time, you could reference staff to those entries and explain in a little more detail. Other things could be included, but this report would be written as a way to update staff, and not to expect a detailed report back from staff anytime soon. [And since it's expected to be filled about once a month, players know to summarize what's important and applicable or else it would take forever to complete. If your character is an exception and Tons of things have happened, then likely you could do two of these a month, but that would be rare I imagine if this is used together with the High Priority report detailed above.]

[In summary: separate reports in terms of priority to staff. One High Priority Report per week for Leaders/Important characters, and a Low Priority Report about once a month for everyone.]

[Semper]

Also, perhaps add an option to include a biography as a kind of character report. In this new kind of request, you can write your character's bio entry, then after submitting it for staff to view, the player can add notes at the end which would provide further details to staff/self, or to be able to link it to a leader/character report.

[Pretty similar to how the bio feature is currently, just in a place more convient to access amd utilitize for players in the New Request section.]

[Jihelu]

Also, perhaps add an option to include a biography as a kind of character report. In this new kind of request, you can write your character's bio entry, then after submitting it for staff to view, the player can add notes at the end which would provide further details to staff/self, or to be able to link it to a leader/character report.

What if you could literally reference a biography or something?
A drop box "Biography" and you could just pick one for reference, either actually linking the text or just giving the person a 'hey this is in conjunction with this biography' as a heads up type thing.

Though that might be a bit much.

[bardlyone]

I am in a clan that says on the forums that all involved (not just leaders) should be reporting. Is this outdated now, or should I still be doing so? Or, secret option 3, should I be using bio 1/week to post the information that is supposed to be in the report (per the forum) into it?

[Nyr]

As long as there is a solid way for staff to find out and understand why my character is doing what its doing, or behaving the way it is without having to ask me directly, it's all good.

We still will be able to open up requests on player behalf.  We also can reply to an open report and ask questions.

[Nyr]

The IC/OOC division is absolutely necessary, surely, Tetra? I know on my characters, there's stuff I tell staff that my character wouldn't tell anyone IC. When I have stuff in an IC section, it tends to be stuff that would be relayed to my character's IC superiors etc.

That's fine, just be sure to err on the side of summarizing the key IC things.  We don't want you to only report OOC stuff--we are trying to cut through to the meat of a report.  If it is going to be in-depth about your character's feelings on a matter, you might as well make it a biography entry.  Those can be done online.  I'm really only suggesting that myself as an alternative:  if you are going to write about it anyway, it is just a different place to put it.  You can review it later at your leisure, reorganize, add new ones, etc.

Not a fan of the idea of biographies. I remember talking to a person who introduced me to Armageddon years ago who seemed to produce them in vast quantities, and some people on the GDB claim to as well. I doubt I'd turn out more than one every couple months, and it would probably be a very dry summary, at most.

No need to do bios if you do not want to do them. Seeing as how it is a way to really connect with your PC, you might want to--and if you do, and do so in a way you like doing it (however often that might be), it can also help staff connect with your PC.  But no requirement or anything, no.

[Nyr]

What about creating a separate "Leader's Report", which would have a management updates section (recruit/discharge/deaths), clan account section, ooc reports to staff (what is needed, questions, comments), and ic reports to superiors (short, concise reports about what your leader has been doing, as if reporting to their superior in a business meeting). The leaders report would be expected to be filled about once a week (or as needed) by leader pcs and because it's short and with high priority things, players can expect a response within the next week.

Then there is the current Character Report, which is where you would explain to staff your character's motives, a summary of what has happened to your character the past three to four RL weeks, and current goals/plans/plots that DO NOT require staff input. If you had bio entries during this time, you could reference staff to those entries and explain in a little more detail. Other things could be included, but this report would be written as a way to update staff, and not to expect a detailed report back from staff anytime soon. [And since it's expected to be filled about once a month, players know to summarize what's important and applicable or else it would take forever to complete. If your character is an exception and Tons of things have happened, then likely you could do two of these a month, but that would be rare I imagine if this is used together with the High Priority report detailed above.]

[In summary: separate reports in terms of priority to staff. One High Priority Report per week for Leaders/Important characters, and a Low Priority Report about once a month for everyone.]

Yes, that is what was suggested.  Right?

[nauta]

I am in a clan that says on the forums that all involved (not just leaders) should be reporting. Is this outdated now, or should I still be doing so? Or, secret option 3, should I be using bio 1/week to post the information that is supposed to be in the report (per the forum) into it?

Some of this depends on the staff you have, the one you are writing to.  

One thing I do is, if a PC has lived a month RL, or if something neat has happened to them warranting staff notification before that period, I will send off an initial character report as an "introduction to my PC", and I will ask if the staff for my clan wants detailed reports and when they want them.  They are usually quite forthcoming about that.  As a minion I will also report what I presume my leader has already reported, since I'm never quite sure if my leader has reported or not and I'm a total snitch.

[Nyr]

Also, perhaps add an option to include a biography as a kind of character report. In this new kind of request, you can write your character's bio entry, then after submitting it for staff to view, the player can add notes at the end which would provide further details to staff/self, or to be able to link it to a leader/character report.

[Pretty similar to how the bio feature is currently, just in a place more convient to access amd utilitize for players in the New Request section.]

Current steps to do a character report (even with the new proposed intermediate step of selecting leader vs non):

Go to armageddon.org
log in on the right
click "new request"
select "character report"
(maybe submenu for the different types, or something)

Current steps to do a biography entry:

Go to armageddon.org
log in on the right
click "biographies"
select the PC
add a biography entry

It would be nice if we could have links between bios and the request tool.  I'll defer to the coding team on that.

[Nyr]

I am in a clan that says on the forums that all involved (not just leaders) should be reporting. Is this outdated now, or should I still be doing so? Or, secret option 3, should I be using bio 1/week to post the information that is supposed to be in the report (per the forum) into it?

We haven't changed any documentation yet, but probably will be soon after the relevant request tool changes have been made.  You do not need to change things up at this point, this is just a place for discussion about the overall nature of character reports before any move forward is made.

Something that we have looked into is the necessity of weekly reports for everyone.  For me, personally...after seeing lots of reports in my day...I am not convinced a weekly report is necessary for anyone but leader-type PCs, or PCs in a special sort of role that needs more specific support from staff.

[Norcal]

This is good. Except now people won't get to be thoroughly entertained by Taijan's awesome report responses. They were always worth the price of admission.

+++

[Nyr]

If an important meeting happens IG, I have thought of sending in a log of the conversation, and throughout the log write what my character is thinking or update staff on the details of the conversation that are not spoken but implied. Would something like this still be considered a character report?

We could add a section of character reports for logs to be added (so they can be collapsed and not take up so much space in the report).  Generally we would request logs rather than have them sent unsolicited.

To use your example: if an important meeting happens, it may be easier for you to log it and send us the log.  It is not easy for us to read through a log.  The level of difficulty increases if you write things throughout the log that you want staff to read specifically (in addition to the context provided by the log, which you already want staff to read).  Instead of doing all of that, it would probably be better to send a character report detailing a summary of what happened in the meeting, and let staff know you have a log if they want to look it over.  Turn that log of thousands of words into a paragraph of summary and you've saved yourself and your staff quite a bit of time!

[solera]

What is a leader? The top dog, or anyone in the clan with "leader" in their Score.
"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?
Sorry, I feel like I' ve been walking around with my eyes shut.


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

I'd like to think this change will encourage me to put my energy into my nonexistent bios that I wish existed past the first month of my PCs' lives.

Oh, and on staff comments. A few snide comments slipped in are a good reminder in how you, as a loyal, totally indoctrinated clan member, should be viewing the situation.  

[Erythil]

I have never once written an extra bio.  Bad me.

I imagine the biggest goal here is cut down on the amount of paperwork that admins have to do, especially for non-critical characters.

On leaders I tend to err towards the side of character reports that are too thorough, whereas on non-leaders I tend not to send them in at all.  Lately I'm trying a format where I separate things I'm hoping for a staff response on away from things that I'm just summarizing.

[Semper]

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. Maybe the template could look something like:

Weekly Report:

Management (Optional)
Hirings/Promotions:
Deaths/Discharges/Demotions:
Questions/comments:

Clan Account (Optional)
Withdrawals:
Deposits:
Current Balance:
Questions/comments:

For Staff:
Plots/Plans for the Week: (such and such is going on, this is the plan...)
Requests to Staff: (these could include crafting orders, specific animations, answers to a plot question, and generally anything that requires staff input or action in order to get things rolling)

For Superior:
IG/OOC Reports: (what happened the prior week, plots that succeeded/failed, things you would and would not tell your superior)

Monthly Report:

Summary of Past Month: (can refer to new biography entries since last report)
Plots/Plans for the Current Month:
General Questions, Comments, Concerns:

[Saellyn]

I'm... going to keep writing my reports as I always have, because it's simple, concise, and basically already follows the format! More or less.

[MeTekillot]

If you tell people what to do, you're a leader.