Proposed Staff Position: Puppeteers

[MeTekillot]

Under the purview of Storytellers and all the rest of the Executive Board volunteer hierarchy, puppeteers would be solely tasked with animations that would be relatively low priority.

A clutch of raptors attacking a Byn patrol
An NPC freshly manifested Elementalist being hunted down by the Legion
An NPC crime victim doing more than fistfighting to the death or screaming THIEF! THIEF!
Extra manpower for animation duty during RPTs

They would not be specifically assigned to handling requests.

[Narf]

Presumably this would be new staff.

Is there a significant interest  from non staff in filling  this roles (likely with the understanding that they would have to accept some limitations on how their characters interact in places they do animations)?

[sleepyhead]

I'd do it

[triste]

sleepyhead would also make a great staffer ps

I like this idea. Narf is probably right that this is currently done by new staffers, or could be done by new staffers. But taking this logic, it's actually a great pipeline for having people prove their ability to staff. That way the privilege is not doled out on guesswork [or player's limited experience with staff like activities like mastercrafting or controlling NPCs]. It's training+recruiting for staffing, and hopefully, fun for players. It's also highly abuseable but better to find out someone would abuse this privilege when they are an easily discarded volunteer rather than an entrusted staffer

[MeTekillot]

Presumably this would be new staff.

Is there a significant interest  from non staff in filling  this roles (likely with the understanding that they would have to accept some limitations on how their characters interact in places they do animations)?

sure, it could be new staff. or just people who aren't interested in ascending the hierarchy or assuming the responsibilities of the other staff positions.

[Patuk]

Armageddon is the top-heaviest MUD I know of. The staff-to-player ratio is really, really high.

We do not lack for staff and I don't think this is needed.

[Jihelu]

I've played other muds with a lot less staff and almost 5x the amount of worldly animations, unrequested.

I'd like more animations in general

[Barsook]

Armageddon is the top-heaviest MUD I know of. The staff-to-player ratio is really, really high.

We do not lack for staff and I don't think this is needed.

I've played other muds with a lot less staff and almost 5x the amount of worldly animations, unrequested.

I'd like more animations in general

Those reasons why I'm not in for this.

[Jihelu]

I actually agree with the proposed idea and role, it would be something I'd heavily like to do (But staff wouldn't let me), as I think if we leave it at 'Ah we have too many staff, staff should just animate more, thread over' we wouldn't find anything changed.

[X-D]

What is interesting is....

Back in the beginning, this staff rank, though called something else, actually existed.

(edit) Been almost 30 years so took me a bit to remember the ranking.

For a few years there was...

Overlord (producer)
Highlord (admin)
Director (storyteller with some admin priv) Who's main job was to direct questmasters.
Questmaster (Storyteller and basically "puppeteer")
And one other which was like builder with less priv.

I tend to think there was a reason for consolidation.