Following a very fascinating discussion on the SL True BtB Goreans group, and after similar conversations with friends and groups of Gor SL players, often on Discord, I’m embarking on a very long article, a dossier on: how to organize role-playing, on a large scale, on Gor Second Life?

Yes, vast ambition, isn’t it? So, before I start, I have no wish to create such an organized structure and lead it. I’m not a leader in this instance. I’ve been one far too often and for far too long in my everyday life, and I’ve taken responsibility for it and paid the price. I simply seek to put forward an idea, which is the fruit of many discussions and various ideas.

Why do I allow myself to do it? To paraphrase a friend: because I have the skills. I’ve been playing tabletop role-playing games for 40 years, I’ve been playing live-action role-playing games for 30 years, I’m an author of successful tabletop role-playing games, I’m a theorist of role-playing as a system and as a practice, and I have professional experience in organizing role-playing games on MMORPG universes (yes, they existed!). Now, that’s not to say my word is gospel, just that I can draw on my experience to explain things pretty solidly.

That said, let’s get started!

1-Why organize the Gor Second Life role-playing game?

For those who haven’t noticed, certain things have evolved and changed in the Gor role-playing community on Second Life. Many things have changed for the better, but not always. Amongts the issues, it’s an ageing community, whose numbers are dwindling, but above all, it’s a fragmented community, where sims isolate themselves from one another. In some cases, this is due to the type of atmosphere and role-playing model chosen, and I can well understand that; in other cases, it’s a self-enclosed communitarian reflex, and that’s less easy to justify.

Okay, but what exactly am I talking about? The strong interaction between each sim and community, in short! I have fond memories of how, a few years ago (well, it’s getting a bit old), Gor’s roleplay in Second Life was fueled by inter-community intrigue, and diplomacy between sims, cultural exchanges and fleeting conflicts or open wars. That receiving an Ubar from another sim, or trade delegates, was common, that public events on one sim were passed on to neighboring sims, so that everyone took part. And that everyone assumed the consequences and risks inherent in the sometimes stormy habits of goreans, such as kidnapping.

An unplanned synergy emerged from these cross-community interactions, and in the end, even sims with different atmospheres and role-playing styles interacted strongly. For better, and sometimes for worse, with BtB and GE players arguing, for example, about the validity of some of these interactions.

And how did it work? By respecting an unspoken charter, in fact! I don’t think I’ve ever seen it officially written down anywhere, but a certain number of codes of respect were known to everyone, and passed on to new players, of which I was one, to help them understand how this informal charter worked and was applied. Nothing too complicated: respect the players, respect the principles of roleplay and fair play, respect the authority and arbitration of sim owners and moderators, don’t force an abductee to stay captive for more than three days unless he/she agrees, don’t attack an empty sim or one obviously outnumbered (what’s the point, anyway, for this type of roleplay?), don’t be the voluntary trigger of a drama, etc….

It didn’t work miracles either! Like everyone else, I’ve seen a lot of dramas, and a lot of slip-ups. But such synergy can’t work without some frictions. As a general rule, however, with this informal charter respected, and this synergy held dear by the players, things went rather smoothly, and above all, created a powerful inter-community activity, which linked communities and sims together in a common story.

Of course, there was another reason why it worked so well: the number of active players! But also the proportion of players enthusiastic about seeing all sims as one world with its regions and cities, and not as separate communities. As far as the number of active players is concerned, it’s hard to do anything directly (but we can do something about it, I’ll come back to that), but as far as the proportion of enthusiastic players who want to see Gor SL as a whole, and not as isolated communities, that’s clearly something we can do, and that’s what this discourse is all about.

2- LARP: Live Action Role-Playing

So what is it? It’s an acronym that describes the principle of playing a role in person (or in Second Life, through an avatar), in an environment that includes both a defined space and a defined time. Here’s the academic definition of the subject:

A life-size role-playing game is a theatrical, narrative form of gaming that takes place in a physical environment. It is a storytelling system in which players assume the roles of characters they embody in person, through actions and interactions. The game world is an accepted environment, located in both space and time, and governed by a set of rules – some of which must be formal and quantifiable.

1. Falk and G. Davenport

LARP is basically role-playing in costume, in theatrical style (you play your part in an evening of discussion, often involving diplomacy or negotiation), murder party style (an Agatha Christie-style investigation) or battle style (you’re equipped with fake foam weapons, and you beat the crap out of each other in a real battle re-enactment, whether historical or imaginary). And sometimes, you can mix all three!

Discussions, investigations, battles… Aren’t we describing the three main role-playing activities in Gor SL? Because, indeed, it’s totally similar. The only difference is that here, you’re in an avatar, not yourself on the spot, and you’re dressing him up in costume for his role. The other difference is that you don’t speak, you write, and speech also replaces some of your physical actions and gestures: if you want to grab a glass of water, you have to describe that you’re doing it, you can’t physically do it.

The LARP is defined by roles, embodied directly, by a setting with fixed limits (so as not to risk the neighbor having a heart attack at the sight of a greenish-skinned Fallout survivor with a weapon of war in his hands), and by a duration of time. In the LARP Vampire la Masquarade, participants meet regularly at fixed times, so that they can all get together for an evening, a day or even a weekend. There can be small gatherings of ten or so players, as well as large events involving hundreds of participants (I’ve even been a storyteller, i.e. a game master).

Yes, it feels like familiar territory, and that’s normal. Practically all roleplay on Second Life resembles the principles of LARP. That said, apart from the difference that LARP involves your physical presence (and times and places to gather), there are several differences with roleplaying on second life and, of course, on Gor SL.

An example: LARP Vampire the Masquerade

What I’m most familiar with in terms of LARPs are fantasy LARPs, with adventure, battle, fireside evenings and walks in the countryside in medieval-fantasy costume, and Vampire The Masquerade LARPs, turned towards an urban setting and a much more political context.

LARP Vampire The Masquerade is the most interesting to study, because it’s called persistent. It’s not a one-off event where you play an orc warrior or an elf magician for a weekend, before going back to work and waiting for the next opportunity, in six months or a year, but a character (a vampire, that is), in a series of close appointments, which may well take place once a week, with big events taking place every month.

LARP Vampire The Masquerade is therefore more structured, as it is more persistent. And above all, it’s cross-community. In Europe, there are still LARP Vampire The Masquerade associations in many cities, ranging in size from a few to dozens of players, who communicate and interact with each other in a vast community that represents the vampire “world”. Events are organized between associations and therefore between cities, with alliances, conflicts, politics, etc… The association of which I was a member, in Nice, France, had, for example, 80 players, including 40 regulars, for a city of 350,000 inhabitants, and took part in or organized between two and three major inter-community events a year. And such figures were not uncommon.

For such a community of dozens of associations to function, three things are required:

– A common charter, with clear rules that are always the same, with a few nuances, from one group to another. This ensures interaction between participants.

– A common context, which is not just the setting, but also a common narrative that follows the events of the different groups and their interactions. This allows interactive stories to be told.

– Organizers arbitrate the rules of the game, the relationships between and within groups, and are responsible for respecting the narrative and using it to create intrigue for their group, and between groups. This enables management.

So in LARP Vampire The Masquerade, there are different organizer roles, as follows:

– Association presidents and representatives: each association is organized like a club, with its own president. Since there is often a membership fee to pay, things are organized legally. In France, this is done under the 1901 law on associations. They are primarily responsible for enforcing the association’s charter, and arbitrating disputes. Association presidents and representatives meet to organize major events between associations and groups, and manage administrative and financial matters. Of course, they often play important roles within LARP, but not always.

– Storytellers: these are the game masters and main writers of the adventures and plots of each LARP. They meet to coordinate their work, following, respecting and extending the general interactive storyline, integrating the consequences of players’ actions. They work directly with association presidents and representatives to organize events, but if they are members of associations themselves, they work independently. After all, it’s less fun to take part in an adventure when you know the scenario.

– Narrators: these are the storytellers’ assistants and animators, providing the link between player groups (clans, families, factions) and the storytellers. They know a few snippets of the  interactive storyline and help the storytellers to organize adventures, for example by playing Non-Player-Characters (NPCs), or giving clues to the players to move the plot forward. They are also there to send the Storytellers reports on the activities of player groups, so that these activities can be integrated into the interactive narrative, and to help each player respect the game’s charter and rules in the event of a problem.

Once again, you’re probably on familiar ground, as there are certain similarities with the structure of role-playing sims organizers on second life. But there are two major differences:

1- The role of storyteller doesn’t exist, or is held by the sim-owner or moderators, which represents an additional mental burden and creates management and continuity problems (not to mention a few abuses).

2- There’s rarely a consistent interactive narrative, with organized feedback of player information and activities to keep the narrative moving. And there are rarely any dedicated narrators.

Now that we’ve clarified the definitions and concepts, how can we make the most of our decades of experience with Gor SL?

3- From LARP to Gor SL

So, to sum up: what’s lacking in the vast community of Gor SL players is a cross-community organization, or, in this case, intersims. But what purpose would such an organization serve?

To promote and structure inter-community interactions, quite simply! By creating an organization capable of adopting a common charter and a vast interconnected narrative, it would energize role-playing interactions between all sims, while facilitating the conditions for these interactions! There would no longer be Gor SL sims, but a world of Gor, in which each sim is a different setting with its own dynamic, integrated into a vast game universe that can be explored, traversed, and in which everyone can participate.

Far be it from me to think that this is easy. But as the current Gor SL problems have all been raised and, in the vast majority of testimonials, come down to the problem of lack of strong interaction between player communities and sims and their tendency to isolate themselves in small, closed groups, the solution seems obvious, provided we can structure and present it.

So, following the example of the persistent, cross-community LARP Vampire The Masquerade, we need a persistent, cross-community LARP for Gor Second Life.

Introducing the LARP Gorean Council!

Please note that this project, the structure of which I’m about to describe, is in no way intended to tell people how to play BtB or not BtB, or what is or isn’t Gorean! If it is cross-community, it’s because, by definition, it goes beyond the types of game and context of the different ways of playing Gor SL. It offers a framework, game rules and rules of conduct, a narrative framework, and provides a structure for organizing and managing this inter-community whole.

And, yes, of course, by proposing a framework, the LARP Gorean Council is structuring a way of approaching role-playing in Gor Second Life, and a game framework. But this framework, well… it’s Gor, in all its variety, paradoxes, contradictions and narrative holes. This implies a definition of what Gor is, but within a broad and inclusive framework, and certainly not a restrictive one. And in any case, I’m not going to tell you how to play Gor. If such a structure is to be born (and can be), it’s its organizers and creators who will define the rules and context.

All I do is provide instructions.

Ah, yes, and of course there needs to be just one such structure, to bring together as many communities of players and sims as possible. Although I have no illusions on the subject, the fact is that creating several similar structures would only dilute the communities, without solving the problem, which is precisely to help them unite and interact.

General principle

1-

The Gorean Council is an assembly of elected representatives of SL Gor communities and sims. These representatives, who may be sim owners, administrators, community leaders or event organizers, senior storytellers or simple delegates, must have been elected within their community to sit on the Council. Each member represents his or her community and has one vote at Council meetings.

The Council proposes and discusses the general direction of the LARP, its organization, its narrative, intercommunity events to be planned, proposes amendments to the charter rules, and votes on each proposal made. A proposal is adopted by majority vote.

2-

The Gorean Council is assisted by the Charter Council, made up of the original volunteer members who drafted the Gorean Council’s charter of good conduct and role-playing rules. They cannot be members of the Gorean Council, as they are its arbiters. Their arbitration concerns compliance with the charter, and therefore the behavior of Gorean Council members. They have the power to dismiss a Gorean Council member or Senior Storyteller. They can also veto an amendment to the charter voted by the Gorean Council: in this case, the amendment can be rediscussed, and put to the vote, after rectification. But all their decisions are subject to a vote by the members of the Charter Council, and require the decision to be adopted by two-thirds of the members of the Charter Council.

3-

Gorean Council and Charter Council refer to the LARP Gorean Council Charter. To be a member of the Gorean Council, you must have accepted this charter and integrated its principles and rules into your community or sim. The content of the charter then becomes all or part of the rules that each Gorean Council member has committed to respecting, and ensuring respect for, within his or her community or sim.

4-

Each community, or sim, is free to manage its own organization of moderators, storytellers and facilitators, as long as the organization includes moderators, storytellers and facilitators who must be identified to the Gorean Council.

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Moderators report on their actions to the leaders, sim owners and administrators of their sim and community. Storytellers and facilitators report to the senior Gorean Council storytellers and, if necessary, to the full Gorean Council during its meetings. Storytellers and facilitators collaborate with the leaders, sims owners and administrators of their sim and community, but independently: they report to the senior storytellers, from whom they take instructions concerning the main narrative. All must respect the rules of their sim or community.

6-

The main storyline, managed by the Senior Storytellers, is a interactive scenario written by the Senior Storyteller group, and forms a common thread for inter- and intra-community plots and adventures. The main storyline incorporates the storylines of each sim and community into a coherent whole. Senior Storytellers ensure its respect, follow-up and continuity, and help Storytellers and Facilitators to create and manage storylines and adventures for communities, sims and player groups. The main storyline is secret: only the Senior Storytellers have full access to it. The main storyline is interactive: it is constantly being rewritten, modified, and enriched by the interactive stories experienced by the Sims, communities, and players.

7-

The Gorean Council Charter is a set of role-playing rules and codes of conduct adapted to the context of role-playing in Gor Second Life. The charter is drawn up by the creators of the Gorean Council, who are responsible for enforcing and arbitrating it. The Gorean Council may propose and vote on amendments to this charter. All members, from players to Gorean Council sim owners, must respect this charter.

8-

The absolute rule of role-playing is simple, and is based on two principles: 1) play with others, not against them. Role-playing, even on Gor SL, is not concerned with winners and losers at the end of the game, because the game has no end, and all that counts is having fun together. 2) Don’t be a jerk, i.e. don’t be disrespectful, discriminatory, contemptuous, aggressive, deceitful, conspiratorial, capricious or a sore loser. Don’t use the game as an excuse to spread behaviors and opinions that are destructive to good relations and cooperation between players.

4- Structure of the Gorean Council

Before starting to write this article, I drew up an organizational diagram, designed to respect the constraints and principles of role-playing communities and sims on Gor Second Life. It’s by no means perfect, but it’s a good way of summarizing the organization and how it works:

The charter & Charter Council

To make a success of such an organization, you need a first group, which will take charge of drafting the Gorean Council charter. This charter consists of two parts: the role-playing rules, i.e. how to manage the role and actions of the characters, and the rules of good conduct, i.e. defining the behaviors of players that are permitted, and those that are not, to ensure good behavior and understanding among all players.

The charter should not define what is or isn’t Gorean. It should define Gor in the sense that it should specify and recall the general context and its codes, but that’s all. Above all, it should define simple, easy-to-deploy rules for managing role-playing actions: how to fight, how to handle a robbery or kidnapping, or how to kill a character, and within what limits and constraints. It must offer a fair and easy-to-manage system, and provide a simple and effective alternative to combat alone with a combat meter like ZcS. It must also define, in line with Gor’s main codes, which of the player’s personal limits for their character can be respected, and which cannot (for example, no capture, or no death).

Lastly, the charter must specify what the rules of good conduct are, and what player behavior is unacceptable and deserving of sanction. Here, I’m really talking about having a set of simple, clear rules whose aim is to enable everyone, without discrimination, to participate as players, on an equal footing, in an atmosphere of fraternity and fair play.

The members of the Charter Council are chosen from among the volunteers who created the organization and drafted the charter. They cannot be members of the Gorean Council, as they are its arbitrators. In the event of a member’s departure or exclusion, the other members of the Charter Council choose the new member by vote. However, candidates for new membership may be proposed by the Gorean Council, with the Charter Council always having the final decision.

The scenario and senior storytellers

Screenwriters and story inventors, this is your time. A group of players must sit down at a table and imagine a long scenario of intercommunity and intersims adventures, capable of lasting several months. In my opinion, a general scenario lasting at least three months is a good place to start. It can be simple, or complex, but it should require a minimum of resources at the outset, so that its organizational complexity doesn’t get in the way. And it should involve all players. Over time, with the arrival of new communities and sims, it will flesh itself out and can be worked on and extended by the senior storyteller group, with the help and complicity of the storytellers and facilitators of each sim and community.

Senior Storytellers are initially selected from volunteers with extensive experience in tabletop role-playing, an open mind, and a good knowledge of the world of Gor (which is surely the easiest of the three required qualities to have, but also the hardest to find). No more than three storytellers are needed at the outset, but this number can be increased to five if the organization grows. Senior storytellers or the Gorean Council propose new storytellers, but the Charter Council approves their appointment after review and a vote.

The main narrative, managed by senior storytellers, must be designed for everyone, not just city, clan, faction and caste leaders. While the latter may have an important role to play in the storyline, and some stories concern only them, such as diplomatic twists and turns, the main narrative must be able to offer important twists and turns to ordinary players. Yes, even the kajirae, please think of them.

Between the incursions of kurii, the inquisitorial manias of certain initiates, the dangers of a group of well-organized mercenaries or outlaws, the consequences of certain Voyages of acquisition and trafficking of strange or dangerous technological stuff, or internal plots linked to agents of the priest-kings, not forgetting commercial or military conflicts, or simply investigations into cases of murder, kidnapping or depredation, there’s no shortage of intrigues to stage that concern several groups and communities. What’s missing is the means to organize these plots, and integrate them into a larger narrative, which is the job of the senior storyteller.

Editor’s note: There is also another deeper aspect here. The “plot” of the story, the narrative, will change. It is the interactions between the players that can cause it to change, and the storytellers must adapt as the story evolves. What happens when the Priest-King’s agent suddenly decides to defect to the Kurii? The story will transform and take a different turn. Storytellers can never decide that a character will ruin their story because they do something completely unexpected, unless the player of that character breaks the rules. That’s where the real fun of role-playing lies: in the unpredictability. It is the role of storytellers to anticipate all the alternatives, to accept that they will happen, and often in completely surprising ways!

Members of the Gorean Council

To become a member of the Gorean Council, an application must be submitted, initially to the Charter Council, and then once the Gorean Council is complete, to the Gorean Council. The candidate then receives a copy of the Gorean Council Charter, which must be accepted and integrated into the rules of his sim or community. The application is then submitted to the Gorean Council members for consideration and vote. If approved, the candidate community or sim must hold an election to choose which of its members will represent it on the Gorean Council.

Gorean Council members are therefore elected, and are not necessarily the leaders of their sim and community. They all have the right to propose an event, a roleplay plot, or an amendment to the Gorean Council charter. They all have the right to vote to accept or reject a new candidate, and to vote for proposals from Gorean Council members. Gorean Council members may not dismiss another member, nor a senior storyteller, but may ask the Charter Council to consider a case requiring their arbitration. The Gorean Council is assisted by the arbitration of the Charter Council, which can order, by vote, a veto on an amendment voted by the Gorean Council, specifying the reason for the veto (most often, non-conformity with the principles of the charter). The amendment can then be renegotiated and rectified, and put to the vote again.

The results of the Gorean Council’s discussions and decisions are forwarded in the form of reports to sim and community leaders, by their representatives. Reports are generally public, except in the case of certain discussions around the main narrative, and certain arbitrations.

Community and sim leaders

They are totally free to manage their community and choose their moderators, storytellers and facilitators. The only constraints are to respect the Gorean Council charter and its rules, and not to block the work of senior storytellers or the general narrative flow. If they have a problem, they have the Gorean Council to discuss it, with their representatives, and lodge a complaint about their problem.

Can a sim or community leader be elected as a representative on the Gorean Council? Yes, of course. The most important thing is that they have been elected by their gaming community to represent it.

Community and sim storytellers

Sim storytellers are chosen according to the rules and wishes of the leaders and members of each sim or community. As already mentioned, they are the game masters and scriptwriters of the adventures and plots of each sim or community. They meet to coordinate their work, following, respecting and extending the general narrative, integrating the consequences of the players’ actions. They must retain a certain independence in their work as storytellers, even if they are subject to the authority and rules of their sim or community.

In the Gorean Council organization, they are indispensable, as it is they who create, animate and help manage the plots and storylines of their sim or community, working in close collaboration with the senior Storytellers.

There should be at least one storyteller per sim or community, but ideally as many as there are major factions in the sim or community.

Moderators

Sim moderators are chosen according to the rules and wishes of the leaders and members of each sim or community. Gorean Council does not intervene in these matters. But moderators are expected to enforce the Gorean Council Charter, since it is part of the rules of every sim or community that is a member of Gorean Council.

Facilitators

Sim facilitators are chosen according to the rules and wishes of the leaders and members of each sim or community. They are there to assist the sim storytellers and help players integrate into the stories and roleplay of the sim’s or community’s narrative framework.

Facilitators know bits and pieces of the narrative and help the Storytellers to organize adventures, for example by playing Non-Player-Characters (NPCs), or giving clues to players, to move the plot forward. They are also there to send the Storytellers reports on player group activities, so that these can be integrated into the narrative.

Player group leaders

The last level of this structure is made up of changing roles with an informal status, and above all, a purely roleplay status. They may be caste, faction, family or Gorean clan leaders.

But it’s with them that facilitators often work, integrating the adventures and plots of the groups to which they belong and lead into the storytellers’ narratives.

The players

And last but not least, the players, and I don’t need to expand on this, except to say that this whole organization is dedicated to them, to offer them the best and most exciting experience possible on Gor SL!

5- communication within the Gorean Council

This is an important subject, because communication is everything. Once such a structure has been created, it must be able to communicate quickly and efficiently at all levels, with the necessary levels of confidentiality and transparency.

Communication media

And for this, you need a written communication medium for tracking entries and responses, with an efficient means of archiving, plus more direct and informal communication media, to ensure rapid exchange between the various members of the organization.

The communication medium that meets all the conditions and constraints I’m thinking of is not a Discord group, but a phpBB forum. It lets you manage categories and discussion groups, with different levels of confidentiality and member access. It lets you create and reply to topics, allowing you to follow threads in a clear and organized way. And what’s more, it’s accessible from anywhere using a web browser.

If you like Discord groups, a Discord group in this case serves as a public showcase and tool for discussion and information outside Second Life. It too can be very useful, but to my knowledge doesn’t have the efficiency of a phphBB forum in terms of tracking conversations, archiving, sorting threads and different levels of confidentiality. That said, if this is also possible on Discord, safely and cleanly, so much the better!

And, last but not least, for fast, direct communication, you need Second Life groups. We need an audience, one for the Gorean Council, one for the Charter Council, one for the Senior Storytellers, and one for all storytellers.

Assemblies

So, in addition to various communication tools and media, we need to plan meetings for the Gorean Council and the Charter Council. In both cases, these meetings, since they involve arbitration decisions and information on the main narrative, must remain private. Only members concerned may attend.

Senior storytellers might also need assemblies, but it’s possible that communication tools and media will suffice. I can’t really comment on that, but after all, that’s the point of this guide, isn’t it? I don’t have all the answers, and I’m sure that the final organization, if adopted, would also choose its own methods of organization.

Gorean Council and Charter Council meetings should be held once a month. They could also be held less frequently, using communication tools and media to receive grievances, proposals for discussion and management of the organization, and applications from new members. Voting could then be managed by forum tools or Discord. The Assemblies would act as a major planning and voting meeting on amendments to the charter.

But regular live meetings are important: Gorean Council members need to be able to meet, discuss and exchange ideas, thus forming the heart of the community they help to create and of which they are members.

A website

And to keep everyone informed, we need a website that presents the Gorean Council, its objectives, how it works, the list of member sims and communities, and its charter. It can be linked to the forum, or to the Discord. And of course, you need someone to administer the site, working with the Gorean Council.

6- Conclusion

Have I covered everything? I don’t think I have. But that’s not the point either. This is an exercise, the proposal of a manual for organizing a real community of sim and player communities on Gor SL.

Is that utopian? Well, no, since LARP Vampire the Masquerade has managed to structure itself in this way, with thousands of players worldwide, and still exists today (my best friend is one of the French-speaking national storytellers, last time I checked). If it can succeed despite the real hurdle of physical distance between communities of players each living in their own town or village, there’s no real hurdle for it to succeed on Second Life.

Is that too optimistic? I can’t say, but again, it’s just a matter of good will. It’s not a project that’s going to interest anyone who hates rules they didn’t write themselves, or the idea of losing a little control over their community or group. But it is for others: those who are enthusiastic about having a common structure, with a common charter and a common narrative framework.

Do I believe in it? Yes, absolutely, and if people want to give it a try, I’d be delighted and willing to help them. That’s not to say I’m naive: there will be resistance, aggressive hostility, and there will still be people coming to tell me I want to kill Gor. But I do know one thing, which has driven the whole of my life since I was 15, and which here fits perfectly and will be my conclusion:

Destiny is what you make of it. The best way to fail is not to try.