~What do I do as a Ref?~

~What do I do as a Ref?~


It's fair to say that we all come to this lovely little hobby of ours to have fun, we all want to be rewarded for investing our time and money, not to mention our emotions.
And more often than not we're well rewarded for our efforts, we clap fellow players on the back, laugh and joke and chat on facebook and forums, develop real friendships out of our fun little hobby.


But what about those folks who run it?
How often does a player say “cheers for that, I had a blast, fancy coming for a pint after the game?”.


Sadly not as often as it could or should happen.


~It's a Hard Life~
Being a Ref, Story Teller, Games Master, Dungeon Master or what ever you happen to call them can sometimes be a bit lonely.
Ours are not the praises sung online, we're really nothing more than something in place to help the Players have all the fun.


Which can be very annoying to say the least.
How many hours do you think a Ref (for sake of simplicity we'll use just this word) spends crafting the epic adventure you've just been on?


There are those who can off the top of their heads run a Linear game, a simple one shot thing which doesn't connect to the major world plot in any way other than it exists in the game world as a whole.
And bravo to them, I truly envy that sort of Ref for how easy they have it.


For the sort of games where there is a constantly evolving story however a Ref needs to plot and plan for a long lot of hours.


~And Example~
As an example i'll describe what I do for Camarilla Invictus.
It has a healthy player base of around 30 people, sometimes lower and sometimes higher.
I run just 11 games a year, once a month with December being the exception because I understand that people need time to shop, drink, eat and be merry at work parties..


So, 11 games doesnt sound like a lot does it, how hard can it be to have 20-30 people in a room playing vampires...


~Stage 1: Player Submitted Actions~
After each individual game I receive a 2-3 page document from each player detailing what they will be doing in between games, this is known in our system as a Downtime. During a Downtime a player advances personal plots, goes hunting for blood (harder than you'd think in this day and age..) and also advances the over all Game Plot which affects the whole setting.


So, each month I have to read 40-90 pages of info from players. I normally allow them 7-10 days to send them in to me so I have time to read them all and process them.


Once i've received a Downtime I have to read it over, usually a couple of times, and I often have to IM a few players back with queries about some of their actions (they're currently allowed up to 10 distinct actions) and what skills or abilities they are using.
We have a specific format for Downtime Submission which some players keep forgetting to use, which makes reading them even longer and throws up more questions than it really should.


~Stage 2: Player Downtime Replies~
Once i've read all the Downtime submissions I then have to do a reply for each and every one of them, so I have to reply to 20-30 2-3 page documents, which then become a 3-6 page reply per person, depending on how well they wrote their downtime actions and whether some of their actions need little more than a stamp of approval on them as they are just confirming some things they done during the Live Action part of the game.


After i've replied to each and every document I then have to re-write some of them because Player 1's actions may effect Player 7's actions, which in turn means that Player 3 may have some actions which now Don't work how they should because of other players..


After i've cross referenced each of the Downtime replies I then double check them for any inconsistencies (and yet they still creep in some how..).


Well, all that sounds pretty straight forward yes? I just reply to every ones Downtimes and thats it job done!


Oh if only...


~Stage 3: Paperwork & Spreadsheets~
Once i've replied to all of the Downtimes, figured out how successful the actions were and whether there has been any reward, gains and losses I then have to go through each of the replies once more, and update a half dozen spread sheets which record what Influences people have, how much XP they have and they have spent, whether a local Influence Resource is now maxed or burned out which caused further plots and problems for the players and several other things besides.


This is perhaps the easiest part of the process, after all i'm just combing through data already presented to me and picking out what changes need to be made to the spreadsheets which define the world and whether there are things I need to add to the players character sheets..


~Stage 4: Rumours~
After the Downtimes & Spreadsheets I then have to comb through each of them and pull out tidbits of information which other characters may hear about, this tidbits of information in CI are known as Rumours, and each player gains a set amount based on what Influences they hold over the mortal world.
With our player base being what it is and the diverse levels of Influences each character holds I sometimes have to generate a further 50-60 pages of rumours.

I try to make all the Rumours different for every player, which is quite hard when you think about it, but thankfully i'm able to reword some of the Rumours a little differently, give one character a rumour about a drug dealer they know and another player a rumour about a drug dealer seen in their area and a third player a rumour about some one who was beaten up a local druggie for debts.. Rumours in our game are used like a form of currency, players can trade them with each other so that they can eventually piece together some part of the World Plot and work with it, against it or totally ignore it if they wish to do so..


However because CI is set in a darker version of our own world and times I also comb the local press for interesting news stories and from time to time work them in to the game as well, that way it helps to ground the characters in to the same reality as the players themselves live in.


~Stage 5: Damage Control (aka Spreadsheets pt2)~
This is little more than a quick double check that I have all the right info in the right place, and that sheets are updated which serves as a nice segue in to the penultimate part of the process.
That said, every month some things do still slip through the net, a player may not of had their new skill recorded or if they've lost an Influence they may not have had it recorded on the relevant spreadsheet..


~Stage 6: Keeping the World Turning...~
Once all the Downtimes are done, the Rumours created I then have to open up some other documents on the computer and update the world as a whole.
I keep tabs of things done, NPC's interacted with, plots generated by players which effect the world and world things which effect the players.


Camarilla Invictus is an evolving world, every action has a reaction in effect.
No matter how small an action might be there will always be some form of reward or consequence.


~Stage 7: Informing the Players~
Once all the downtimes are read & replied to, the rumours generated and the world edited so it doesn't blow up I then spend an evening informing the players the results of their actions.


Through out every stage of the process i'm also always available for the players to contact me, which can sometimes slow up the whole process if one or two players insist on asking the same question a dozen different ways trying to get plot leaks from me or try and metagame with out being seen to metagame.


~Mistakes..~
Sadly now and then mistakes or errors crop up, usually from where i've been chatting to players, lost my place in the process or forgotten to go back and update a highlighted bit of info..


Thankfully such mistakes are few and far between, usually one or two players contact me to say “Heya XYZ isn’t on my sheet... any reason why...” and i'm always upfront and honest with them, and they almost always have the updated information within the next hour (though usually within the next 10 minutes.. because I take pride in what I do)


~Why Do It?~
It is a lot of work, and CI is a very cheap game, we only ask for a small amount of money, either to cover the location costs or to build up a little bit of a kitty so we can use a bigger & better location with less over all cost to the players as a whole.
It can be a full time job with all the hours I put in to it at the end of the day, but I don't earn a wage for what I do, if I were to charge players for the time I spend keeping the world running i'd charge then CI would cost each player £10-£15 per game they attend.


Thankfully I'm blessed with a very patient partner who acts as my A-Ref and takes some of the work load off of me, she often tends to the Spreadsheets helps with the Rumours whilst I deal with the rest of the workload for the game.


It is a lot of hard work but I find it very rewarding to do.
I love being able to shock and surprise players, give them what they think they want and turn it in to something monstrous which they talk about for months after, even now in 2014 players talk about things that happened in 2012, some even talk about what happened in 2008 in whispers of fear and awe.


It makes me swell with pride after every game, seeing the look on their faces when they realise what's happening in the game around them and knowing that I personally am having that effect on them with what I throw in to the game.


~Dark Times...~
However, there are times when I want to walk away from it all.
A player takes an action done against them by another player in game and turns round and blames it all on me, after all i'm the guy that writes the replies to the Downtimes..


We've had players leave the game in the past and try to discredit us, every system has that in all honesty, but as we're a Small game and group many of us become good mates and it hurts to hear mates say such things.


There are times when several players may complain about another players Out of Character Actions, and as a Ref I have to be the person that tells them off, and once in a rare whilst I have to ask players to leave the game because of the massively disruptive influence they are having on the game as a whole.


Being the Ref of a game isn't all fun and sunshine, you can lose players who were mates because of how things turn out in game for them, you can gain players who make characters but then never turn up despite all the promises under the sun of “i'll be there next game...”.


It can be a thankless thing to run a game, but when one player in the game says “thanks” that's all I really ask for.


~Other Systems~
So, i've outlined what it is I do for Camarilla Invictus, which has only myself and an A-Ref.
Other systems use a lot more Refs for all kinds of things.
Some small systems, with a similar player base size as CI have a larger number of Refs, each overseeing some aspect of the game.


Harlow by Night for example has a Rules Ref, an A-Ref, a Boons Ref and a Rumours Ref, all of which perform a small selection of duties.
Labyrinthe has a Ref and an A-Ref for each 'Dungeon' they run, a Games System Manager who over sees the Rules adjudications, a Ref for their Online/PBM setting (Heroes of the Empire, aka HotE) and one who oversees something known as “Yellow Papers” where players can request new abilities for a small fee. They also have Refs that over see a selection of different Campaigns.
Empire, Odyssey and the like all use a Team of Refs who keep the world turning, some focus on character creation, others only on Crew.
Wasteland also operates a small team of Refs who handle everything in a similar manner as I do for CI, however they also have people who source props or make them from scratch, something i've recently ventured in to myself..




The Refs are the behind the scene people, often over looked and forgotten.
They're they guys and girls who strive to make sure that everyone has as much fun as possible regardless of the length of the events being run.


The work they do is 90% unseen by players, the paperwork, the data sifting, the props sourcing and building, the event writing itself (Linears don't write themselves..), the rewriting of plots when specific players are unable to attend or the sudden mad dash to get crew for an event..


It's tough to be a Ref it really is, but it's rewarding if you can pull it off.




So, after the next event you go to, make sure you offer a little thank you to the fine folks that run the game, your thanks will go a long way!




Written by Nick Sands, who's given up trying to find the Perfect Battenburg and has decided to hunt for the Legendary Tiramisu of Doom...