From Mizahar Lore

Volunteering on Mizahar can be a wonderful experience for anyone be they graders, lore developers, but none of that is more true than for a storyteller position. Being a storyteller on Mizahar is one of the fastest ways a person can really hone their organization skills and work on their leadership qualities.

Like any rewarding work, a storyteller gets out of it what they put into it. The experience tends to mirror their own attitude. If they look forward to it and find a lot of joy in interacting with players and world building incredible people places and things, nothing is better! If they see it as a chore, it will soon become a chore.

The primary job of any storyteller on Mizahar is first and foremost to find out how to find pleasure and joy in doing their jobs and then do it that way. Secondary, but still just as important, is the below guidelines that we set as an outline for what staff should be doing.

Mizahar has historically shied away from clearly, even in the loosest fashion, defining Storyteller (ST) duties in any way shape or form. There are a dozen starts to projects where this has been attempted but none have been completely finished. Below is a loose definition of what is expected of the staff and volunteers for Mizahar. Hopefully volunteers will not see this as a "YOU MUST..." sort of scenario but will instead use it as a guideline for what they should be doing in their particular areas. If these expectations are followed, there is no reason for a player to have trouble contacting an ST or for that ST to be barely active.

General Information

Each storyteller will be assigned one domain. They will not float, assist others, or develop for different domains unless it is with a non-staffer PC or under the direction of an RS/HD. This is to clearly define the framework a storyteller is allowed to ply their trade within.

A storyteller’s job is broken down into what is considered a Storyteller Triad. That is to say that Storyteller’s have three main jobs.

• Plotting - Setting Plot, Crafting Back Stories, Establishing Interactions & Relationships, Approving Plot, and Establishing and maintaining atmosphere (80% of the Triad – DS’s & AS’s).
• Development – Creating Locations, People, Organizations, and Attitudes. (10% of the Triad – DS’s & AS’s)
• Administration – Approving Jobs, Wages, Seasonal XP, etc (10% of the Triad – DS’s Only

As you can see, all Assistant Storytellers can do 90% of a Domain Storyteller’s job. Regional Storytellers’s can oversee the whole of the triad in any domain that fits into their region. The same is true of Founders gamewide.

Storytellers that share an overlapping wilderness area with other domains have full authority in that domain. They can set plot, give approvals, develop, and administrate those overlapping wilderness areas and act on the triad just as if it were their own domain.

Domains usually refer to cities, but that is not entirely true. They can be almost anything truthfully - ie ships, lakes, oceans, a set of ruins, caves.

Closed domains are shut down because no one, not even the Help Desk, has any Storytelling Triad ability there. Players MUST leave. Closed Domains are not opened to Flashbacks any longer. They need to remain closed all across the board. Closed domains will be denoted with a (Closed) in their title.

Regional Storyteller (RS) Guidelines & Expectations

• Have fun! While all the below duties seem like a lot of work, there is zero reason why a storyteller of any sort can't thoroughly entertain themselves (and thus others) while having a tremendous amount of fun while fulfilling their volunteer duties!
• Treat everyone in their region respectfully and equally.
• Fully oversee one of the six regions of Mizahar carrying out the Storyteller Triad duties within the whole of that region.
• Act as a fully dedicated DS to ONE domain in their region. They cannot, however, DS all their domains and keep them from being closed. Domains need a fully dedicated AS or DS to remain open within a region.
• Coordinate DS’s and AS’s underneath them, providing another tier of support.
• Be active. That means logging on daily if possible, checking your pms, domain activity, seeing who needs help and what needs done.
• Announce clearly to staff and players any and all absences. Being busy is fine, but vanishing for long periods without letting people know is not.
• Respond to PMs within 24-48 hrs. if one has not announced an absence from the game. If the PM response requires a lengthy addressment, give the player a heads up that you got their pm via a pm response and then give them a timeframe in which you’ll address their issue fully. (I.e. “I have seen your pm, but it will take me probably until Thursday to respond since it requires a bit of thinking/planning.”)
• Moderate at least two threads a season of any sort. Quest threads or Gnosis threads are encouraged.
• Set the atmosphere of the region during the season and post a seasonal announcement setting the theme of the season in the region they oversee.
• Assist in HD Duties.
• Participate in Coordination Threads, Discussions in the Staff Lounge, Chat, and actively seek to assist in the Question and Answer Forum. Have an approachable presence on the site.

Domain Storyteller (DS) Guidelines & Expectations

• Have fun! While all the below duties seem like a lot of work, there is zero reason why a storyteller of any sort can't thoroughly entertain themselves (and thus others) while having a tremendous amount of fun while fulfilling their volunteer duties!
• Treat everyone in their domain respectfully and equally.
• Fully oversee the domain in which they volunteered for carrying out the Storyteller Triad duties within the whole of that domain.
• Coordinate AS’s and JrSt’s underneath them, providing another tier of support.
• Be active. That means logging on daily if possible, checking their pms, domain activity, seeing who needs help and what needs done.
• Announce clearly to staff and players any and all absences. Being busy is fine, but vanishing for long periods without letting people know is not.
• Respond to PMs within 24-48 hrs. if one has not announced an absence from the game. If the PM response requires a lengthy addressment, give the player a heads up that you got their pm via a pm response and then give them a timeframe in which you’ll address their issue fully. (I.e. “I have seen your pm, but it will take me probably until Thursday to respond since it requires a bit of thinking/planning.”)
• Moderate at least two threads a season of any sort. Quest threads or Gnosis threads are encouraged.
• Grade completed threads in a timely fashion or if overwrought solicit grader assistance from the Grading Team.
• Participate in Coordination Threads, Discussions in the Staff Lounge, Chat, and actively seek to assist in the Question and Answer Forum. Have an approachable presence on the site.
• Set the atmosphere of the Domain during the season and post a seasonal announcement setting the theme of the season in the domain they oversee. These can come in any form the DS desires (i.e. Calendars, Challenges, etc).

Assistant Storyteller (AS) Guidelines & Expectations

• Have fun! While all the below duties seem like a lot of work, there is zero reason why a storyteller of any sort can't thoroughly entertain themselves (and thus others) while having a tremendous amount of fun while fulfilling their volunteer duties!
• Treat everyone in their domain respectfully and equally.
• Fully assist the Domain Storyteller of the domain in which they volunteered for carrying out the Storyteller Triad duties within the whole of that domain.
• Coordinate JrSt’s underneath them, providing another tier of support.
• Be active. That means logging on daily if possible, checking their pms, domain activity, seeing who needs help and what needs done.
• Announce clearly to staff and players any and all absences. Being busy is fine, but vanishing for long periods without letting people know is not.
• Respond to PMs within 24-48 hrs. if one has not announced an absence from the game. If the PM response requires a lengthy addressment, give the player a heads up that you got their pm via a pm response and then give them a timeframe in which you’ll address their issue fully. (I.e. “I have seen your pm, but it will take me probably until Thursday to respond since it requires a bit of thinking/planning.”)
• Moderate at least three threads a season of any sort. Quest threads and training threads are encouraged.
• Grade completed threads in a timely fashion or if overwrought solicit grader assistance from the Grading Team.
• Participate in Coordination Threads, Discussions in the Staff Lounge, Chat, and actively seek to assist in the Question and Answer Forum. Have an approachable presence on the site.
• Assisting the DS in setting the atmosphere of the Domain during the season and post a seasonal announcement setting the theme of the season in the domain they oversee. These can come in any form the AS desires (i.e. Calendars, Challenges, etc) with DS permission.
• Assistant Storytellers WILL NOT repost locations, linkmaps, or any other established lore in a domain without the express permission of a Founder.

Junior Storyteller (JrST) Guidelines & Expectations

• Have fun! While all the below duties seem like a lot of work, there is zero reason why a storyteller of any sort can't thoroughly entertain themselves (and thus others) while having a tremendous amount of fun while fulfilling their volunteer duties!
• Treat everyone in their domain respectfully and equally.
• Become project people. Since these young people do not often dictate their time or their ability to be on the internet, we still allow them to join staff, only in a modified project by project way. They will be overseen by a DS, though an AS will suit as well if a DS is lacking, and given project work as needed that fits with their abilities and interests.
• Grade completed threads in a timely fashion.
• Participate in Discussions in the Tree House, Chat, and actively seek to assist in the Question and Answer Forum. Have an approachable presence on the site.

Addendum

In the staff lounge where I place these guidelines, I will be asking staffers to post an 'I agree to these terms' in a post below this posting. This is removed here because this posting has been made for the sake of game transparency. The following follows my requirement of the staff to agree to these terms...

In agreeing to these terms, you'll need to understand that joining the staff of Mizahar (or remaining on it) is agreeing to dedicate some time to it. By following these guidelines you will be posting daily or in spurts throughout the week. There can be no more excuses or misunderstandings that half a dozen posts a season constitutes you being 'active'. If one follows these guidelines, the staff should have dozens of posts a season. They don't have to be daily, but if you care for your domains and the players you serve, then posting will be frequent.