Shattered Kingdoms

The staff has come to realize that a few parameters need to be set when it comes to in-game leadership. Given a few recent instances, we are holding the current and future members who hold leadership positions in the many factions and religions to the following expectations:

- Seekers will be met in person when they make their intentions known. The current flavor of the faction is the leader's choice, but the seeking process is roleplay that is initiated by and directly affects the seeker. The seeker will be involved from the start in actual dialogue. If playtimes don't match up, a second leader, trusted religion/faction member or even patron IMM can step in for a leader to get the ball rolling. If all else fails, the astral boards can be used.

- Quests for membership are appropriate in some cases; however, should tasks be required, they should be transparent and reasonably attainable by any level of player. Newbies are not now nor have they ever been excluded from any aspect of the game, including factions and religions. Should a seeker need clarification or guidance on a task, leaders will provide it.

- Leaders should expect to be visible and available to seekers whenever reasonable IC. Of course, situations will arise where a leader character will be in the middle of something and may have to delay or defer a seeker, but making no effort to be available doesn't fly. A leader character should be a player's primary. If logging a leader character in becomes a chore and the player would rather play an alt, he or she should contact his or her patron to have the flag removed.

Note that we are not asserting that leaders can't have valid roleplay reasons for excluding someone from the organizations they lead. Leaders are still at liberty to reject seekers, but they should absolutely know why they have been turned away. Seekers should be allowed to develop over time and perhaps reapply should their roleplay fit instead of being met with "Too bad, loser. You didn't make the cut then, we're not willing to entertain the idea now."

The job of a leader on SK is as much OOC as it is IC. Leaders are there to hand-hold clueless newbies who don't understand anything about the game, RP with everyone who comes around looking to join their group, guide the RP of current members and field their questions, and generally try to make the game more fun for everyone else in their organization. It's a nice bonus if they can also work well with other leaders and arrange activities with them. For all of this, leaders get LTs and some IC authority.

The sentiments of the playerbase express a none-too-subtle disdain for people who "sit on" leader flags, and we feel that not meeting these basic requirements falls into the same category. Those unwilling to meet them may PM their patron for immediate removal of their flags without question or penalty. However, should flags be removed forcibly for failure to comply, the action will be accompanied by a large curse.