Vote for Head Narrator

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

Hi all.

As we know, Reader is unable to continue as Narrator for the forseeable future, and both Baelon and Nathan have expressed a desire to pick up the slack and keep the game going. Please cast your vote for who you'd like to do that.

Whomever is elected will likely recruit assistant narrators/mechanics assistants to help share the workload, as it is a lot for one person, and the general concensus seems to be that moving towards self-sufficiency would be beneficial. They will also have support from Reader when he is able. Hopefully, this will lead to a more smoothly functioning game, where we don't have to endure long periods of inactivity.

The poll is set for 7 days, so please vote by next Monday to ensure you have your say.

Thank you all for your patience during this transition period. If anyone has questions about this poll, feel free to contact me.

[Reader]

Top use of polling software.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

Top use of polling software.

Is that your way of subbing to the thread?

[Reader]

Transparent, Corrine has seen right through me...

[Baelon Drakeson]

I see no need to draw this out any longer - the majority of the active player base has voted and the winner is clear.

Congratulations, Nathan. The big shoes are yours. I truly hope you succeed and will assist as best as I am can, whether than be running combats or arguing mechanics.

To those who supported me publicly, privately, or with votes: thank you. I look forward to continue playing with you and striving to make this the best damn game that anyone could ask for.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

That is gracious of you to say, but I don't think I have the ability to change the running time. I wanted to give everyone a reasonable chance to vote. Sorry. I'm sure Reader can offer guidance.

[Baelon Drakeson]

It's a matter of inescapable math.
21 players were active in the last month (excluding Ser Jorah).
11 have voted for Nathan.

Even if every single additional vote cast was for me, Nathan would come out ahead.
I concede, withdraw my name from consideration, etc. and so forth.
You are not shortening the time, the vote has been won.

[Nathaniel Mason]

I concede, withdraw my name from consideration, etc. and so forth.

That is certainly your right, however, democracy is not just about who wins.  It's about ensuring everyone has an equal opportunity to vote.  A week is not so long a time to ensure that everyone feels this has been handled fairly.  I would not wish any active player here to feel that their vote has been dismissed or is unimportant.

[Baelon Drakeson]

People are of course welcome to continue to vote, but should be aware that the result will not change. Democratic ideals or no, mathematics is absolute.

The uncast votes matter just as much as the votes already cast for me - they might not change the outcome, but they may adjust the perspective on it. Majority rule is not majoritarianism, though they may appear the same on the surface.

Regardless, there is no reason not to start the transition process now - it will take time as it is, and the longer the delay is, the more likely it becomes that we will lose more players.

[Reader]

That is gracious of you to say, but I don't think I have the ability to change the running time. I wanted to give everyone a reasonable chance to vote. Sorry. I'm sure Reader can offer guidance.  

First, thanks to Baelon for a gracious resignation speech and volunteering to assist on combat (which we've all seen his very swift and proficient at). I'd have been delighted to hand over to either of you.

Second, think that the poll can be left open (to allow everyone to vote) but with us effectively moving forward as if it were concluded, as the gap is too large to make up. Baelon & Nathaniel make a good point on perspective from the unallocated votes too, so that should allow for this too.

I've got to go to work now (I'm at home dealing with more roof problems, I kid you not. We're not even the top floor flat...), but I'll start working with Nathaniel on handing over documents, creating an Admin log-in for him. Can hopefully start doing this from tonight onwards, may take a few days given back end stuff and volume of material. I'll still be around to help!

May also need to create an assistant narrator forum with access for Baelon and the good Septon, based on previous discussions.

Thanks to everyone for their efforts - let's make this the rare transition that works!

Bravo to Corrine for swiftly putting the poll in place and to Nathaniel and Baelon for both being brave enough to put their names forward.

[Reader]

I am sending a PM to everyone who logged in recently to check their views on how to proceed. Feel free to PM me if you were accidentally missed out, your opinion still matters.

[Reader]

Views on this to my PM inbox my Monday morning UK time please.

[Aerion Storm]

I am sending a PM to everyone who logged in recently to check their views on how to proceed. Feel free to PM me if you were accidentally missed out, your opinion still matters.

I'll work up a proper response to you later today (alas, we've got to make a few drives to the old house to grab some stuff and do some cleaning), but just real quick I wanted to shoot out a kudos for this. I appreciate you taking the time to try and collect some opinions this way, and let everyone feel like a part of the conversation, and comfortably in private for those who might not like speaking up in public threads. Thanks.

[Reader]

Thanks Ser, living up to the knightly ambitions there.

I am an investment analyst, so those who rely on justifiable stereotypes of my ilk will have guessed this way of handling it was not my idea. I am however at least capable of following good advice, honest and willing to work hard.

[Reader]

Also, where are my manners? Good luck with (yet more) driving!

[Reader]

Thanks to everyone for the initial replies, which have been helpful, lifted my morale and let me know areas of weakness. Encouraging tone but not afraid to say what's wrong, thanks to those who've replied so far and plenty of time for others to send me their views.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

Thanks for your patience and willingness to listen. I hope the matter can be resolved peacefully.

[Reader]

Thanks Corrine! Nathaniel suggested this exercise, as flagged previously and I'm glad I followed his advice.

The opinions I've received have been constructive and even handed on my reading, and one or two have made me laugh and smile.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

Laughing and smiling is good. We need more of that.

[Reader]

Just popped a message over to Nathaniel's player, will try to keep everyone up to date. Many thanks to all for the personal messages. Sorry for brevity, on phone!

[Nathaniel Mason]

Hello everyone,

First of all, I want to thank people for the kind words of support and encouragement.  It means a lot to me.   I have thought a great deal on this over the last week, even lost sleep over it.  I am going to be as frank and honest as I can, because I think it's important, and I think you deserve nothing less.

I never had any burning desire to narrate Dragon's Dance.  I put my name forward because several asked me to do so.  Most felt I would excel in the position.  A couple did not want Baelon as Narrator and felt I was the only alternative.  None of us wanted the game to go on hiatus or to die.

When the vote came in.  I began to prepare to take the position.  I had every intention of doing my best for all of you.  I began preparing war events and deciding what would be needed to streamline the game to make it easier for me and everyone.  Concerns were quickly voiced.  Some of them perhaps valid, some of them I felt unfounded or voiced out of fear.  That is understandable in a transition such as this.  I quickly realized that I would be spending as much or more of my time managing these concerns as I would creating events and story.  I was also miserable after the two weeks of contest over the position.  I did not want to be miserable anymore.

That was the reason I left.  That is not the reason I am not coming back, at least as HN.

Reader is a competitive Narrator.  You can see that in every aspect of his style.  It is built into the very game's foundation.  The war, the G/B factions, the competition between the Houses.  Even some of the events within Houses lend itself to this competitive style.  It is definitely what I would call a PvP thrust to narration.

I am a collaborative Narrator.  You can see that in the events I have created.  Every game I have ever run (and I have run thousands over my life) follow that style.  Even if the players have individual agendas and personal goals, the characters work together towards a common purpose.  In my weekly group, we are all Narrators.  We collaborate on story and switch out HN regularly when one of us has a story to tell.  These transitions are seamless because both the players and the characters are working together.  Rules changes are made by consensus.  Characters are close knit and have deeply intertwined backstories.

There are advantages and disadvantageous with both styles of narration.  Neither is better than the other, but they require an entirely different set of skills.  I have come to realize I do not enjoy competitive narration (as a narrator).  I can do it, but I doubt I would do it well.  This is Reader's game, and we are fundamentally different in outlook and style.  I can't pretend to be him, and I think I would just make myself very unhappy if I tried, making you all unhappy as well.

I am going to strongly encourage all of you to appoint Baelon as Narrator.  I know some of you have misgivings about that, but it cannot be denied by anyone that he has the time, the drive, the intelligence, the game knowledge, the creativity and the experience to do the job.  He also more closely mirrors Reader narration style and they have worked well together for the last two years.  Perhaps, the only thing he lacks is the trust of some of the players, and I think, to be fair to him, he should be given the opportunity to earn that trust.

I know that decision is not the decision some of you want, but it is the decision I am making.  To be supportive of you all, I must make the decision that I feel ensures the best chance for the continuation of the game whether I am currently participating or not.  With Reader stepping back, Baelon is the only viable choice.

I may return to Nathan in the future.  (Baelon, please don't kill him off in my absence.  )  He can certainly PM me if he is Narrator should he value my input on any subject or want a particular piece of story written.  For the moment, at least, I, like Reader, am taking a step back from Dragondance to concentrate on another project.

I will reiterate that I wish you all fun and good fortune, both with Dragondance and all the other aspects of your life.  We all play these games to take us from the trials and challenges of our real lives, so we can face the trials and challenges of our pretend lives.  Lives are stories, and in many ways, the characters here are just as real as if there were made of flesh and blood, and, at least in my case, far less fallible.

All the best.

[Ser Alfred Haigh]

First of all, thank you for getting back to us on this.

I agree that working in a Narrating function should be fun and not involve miserability, that's available easily enough and it's not a fun place to be. It is a very important and viable point you're making. Also, different playstyles are an important point as well. I don't think I gave enough attention to that, which, in hindsight, should have been obvious. I credit either my obliviousness or just that I'm one of the new guys who doesn't know the people around here well enough. Thus, if I jumped to conclusions or judgements concerning any of the applicants for the HN position too early, I'd like to apologize for that.

So, thanks for being as frank and open with us and I can see where you're coming from. I hope you may get to a point where you feel like popping into Nathan again some time the future, we'll see about that. I haven't read too much of Nathan, but what I saw looked pretty fun.

I wish you good fortune in the times to come. Take care.

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

Agreed with Haigh...thanks for coming back and giving us more context and letting us know what was going on. For my own sake, I think both of you would be good Narrators. But it's good overall that you realized that running it wouldn't work for you early...a game cannot survive a GM who's heart isn't in it.

I too hope you come back, and that there's something to come back to.

[Loreia]

It's good to hear from you again. I would like a long-term solution to the issue, but I respect your reasons why you won't stand in for the role. Thank you for explaining the situation.

[Theomore Tullison]

It is certainly understandable, though I wouldn't see it as a negative for the game to be pulled towards a more collaborative style, and I think that was the overall plan for chapter 3 and beyond, at least compared to chapter 2. However, after two years of "this is how we do things", you can't change too much either. And that's one reason as to why I never considered stepping up to the challenge.

The other reason for why I still won't is one that applies for why I don't think Baelon stepping up will work, there's been two years of arguing and disagreements, and both of us have been neck deep in it, to the point where that would follow either of us into the position. Maybe most prominently between the two of us, but it involves several more, so yeah...

In short, my opinion kinda goes like this: If we ignore all the OOC stuff, I really like Baelon the character as he comes out in the IC, but I'm actually feeling that it would be better if Baelon's player were to start a game from scratch (and I'd be playing in that, btw) than to take over here. OTOH, I'm also the sort of guy that won't write it off without trying it out first.

Ideal situation from my point of view is that we get some uncontroversial additions to the narrator team that brings in what is needed to reignite the engines, keep them running and mostly follow the course that has been plotted so far in terms of style and story, I imagine there's plenty room to make adjustments along the way, graduate change is usually the best sort.

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