Koman Locke Thread

Argle asked previously for me to provide examples of things I did with Koman Locke in the T'zai Byn to make him a good leader. Sorry man, I completely forgot to be honest after the page rolled a couple of times.

Argle PM'ed me to remind me this morning. I decided I would go ahead and post it publicly.

I don't want to be preachy and I don't want to pretend like I know everything about the game, but there are a few personal rules I follow when being a leader. Maybe you will find this rambling useful/appreciate some of these examples.

1) When you take on a leadership role you assume a certain understood responsibility. You are no longer just a "player". Players are people who show up to be entertained and play. Leaders should show up to be entertained and play, but their primary source of enjoyment should come from providing OTHER players with entertainment. IF one of your major sources of entertainment IS NOT providing other players with things to do/fun/entertainment, then you shouldn't ever put yourself in a leadership role. In my opinion you do not belong in it. A leadership role is in a lot of ways a practice in sacrificing your time and effort for the good of the game and for the enjoyment of your underlings. You will spend a lot of time doing things you don't necessarily enjoy to ensure other people have a good time. The payoff for you is seeing that final product which is your underlings having said good time, and that should make it all worth it to you. If you aren't prepared to do that, keep being a player, don't be a leader. You are just not ready for/don't belong in that role.

2) Recognize that the clans in the game are barebones at best. Take the T'zai Byn for example, it likely has THE BEST setup in terms of allowing players to provide themselves with their own enjoyment and interaction, and even then, it is barebones in my opinion. As a Bynner two things dictate the structure of your life. The rules of the guild, and the schedule. The first ensures everyone moves more or less in the same direction, and the schedule ensures people show up regularly at the same locations at the same times for interaction. That's it. That's what the guild provides. As a leader YOU PROVIDE EVERYTHING ELSE!!! If you aren't providing more than showing up and following the rules/schedule yourself, you might as well not be a leader. You should be a player. Any player can show up, follow the rules, and interact with other people. As a leader you have the special ability and power to do more than that. So do more than that. You wanted examples, here are some from Koman Locke's era;

A) Koman Locke very rarely let anyone participate in standard training if he was around. If he was around, it was a chance to do things outside of the normal schedule. Make sure when you are around, if possible, you are doing other/new/different stuff with your underlings. Your players have been following that schedule the entire time you haven't been online. Now that you are online they are looking for you to do other things with them. They expect it from you, and rightfully so. If you aren't doing it, you are failing them.

B) Look at the game from both an IC and OOC point of view. IC'ly people are there to make a few coins and live the life of a rugged mercenary. OOC'ly they are there to increase their skills and enjoy their experience as a player. The "schedule" provides MAINLY the opportunity to skill up as a warrior. It doesn't provide much else. It is designed to make warriors stronger and the other guilds get left behind. Koman Locke specifically created different training routines he ran to train people in all sorts of skills. Koman Locke was a Ranger/Slipknife. This allowed him to train people in climb, poison, backstab, sneak, hide (wilderness and city), archery, brew, fletchery, and basic combat. He ensured his First Trooper was always a warrior to make sure the warriors got special attention as well that he couldn't provide codedly. Koman Locke had a special training "event" for each of those skills and he ran them regularly. There was "rope climbing" in the training halls. There were backstab/poisoning lessons for people who fit those bills and expressed an interest. The key was always to make sure every type of character possible felt they were getting the skills they wanted raised trained instead of just standard combat alone which is all the T'zai Byn really provides typically. This hopefully gave all of those players who weren't warriors a more rewarding experience. I felt like it did.

C) The progression in the T'zai Byn goes more or less like this. Runner, Trooper, First Trooper, Sergeant. That is basically where it stops. MOST of the time the transition from Runner to Trooper isn't a great change in lifestyle. You don't have to clean the shitters anymore, you get a locker, and get more pay. That's about it. OOC'ly I have always felt this wasn't enough. Koman Locke specifically made his Troopers more important to him and as a whole to the group. First, disrespecting Koman Locke's Troopers was punishable. If the offense was grievous enough, it was punishable by death (only ever required once, and was voted on by the Troopers as a whole, not Locke's decision). This was done to make the transition from Runner to Trooper feel much more important and much more grand. You got more "authority" through Koman Locke, and you were more important overall to the people in your clan, especially the Runners. It made the promotion feel more rewarding hopefully. ALSO, when you became a Trooper Koman Locke took a special interest in you. You got pulled aside and he asked you what you goals were and if you had special goals, he attempted to help you to the best of his ability to accomplish them. Honestly most people didn't have any "goals" they felt like sharing, but, having the conversation with them hopefully made them feel more important and again hopefully made them feel like their promotion was more of an accomplishment/more rewarding as a player. Finally, the ONLY way you got promoted to a Trooper, was if the majority of the other Troopers already in place agreed they wanted you to be promoted to be "one of them". They got a say in if a Runner got promoted to Trooper. It built a sense of community, but also made Troopers feel more important. I can recall three Runners off the top of my head who got "voted out", basically by the Troopers already in place. It was a rare occurrence.

D) In line with "C" above, getting promoted TYPICALLY isn't a big deal in the T'zai Byn. It doesn't usually feel like a great accomplishment. MAKE IT A GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT. There aren't many "levels" of promotion in most clans. It should be a big event because it isn't going to happen for that player very many times in their character's life. Clans don't have 15 different ranks of achievement. The T'zai Byn has two official promotions, and that's it. First Trooper isn't considering a promotion so much as a validation/appointment typically so I'm not counting it (but I did make it special as well, read on). Koman Locke created special classifications of the already established ranks that were specifically designed to cater to different OOC playstyles. I did this on purpose:

Heavies - These were Koman Locke's warriors typically. Koman Locke had a crimson targe (a large round shield) mastercrafted by House Salarr specifically for his people. He had a deal with Salarr that nobody in the Known was allowed to buy this shield but himself, and it stayed that way for many IC years. THE ONLY WAY to get this shield in the entire game was to be promoted as a "Heavy" under Koman Locke in the T'zai Byn. Becoming a "Trooper Heavy" got you a promotion ceremony, all of the other "Trooper Stuff" above, and this crimson targe to wear on your back to show the world your achievement. Hopefully, people liked it. (The targes were crimson because Koman Locke's unit was The Blazing Suns...and the sun is crimson. A big round crimson shield...like a big round crimson sun. I never explained this IC and wondered if anyone made the connection heh.)

Scouts - These were Koman Locke's rangers typically. Koman Locke spent a lot of time specifically training them and only them outside of the city. It wasn't that I as a player wanted "a bunch of hunters" in the T'zai Byn. It was that Koman Locke was a ranger, so, I just had more on an OOC level to provide to these players in terms of skillsets. I also just personally enjoy "rangering", so it was fun for me and hopefully for them to take them out and train them to "ranger". Anyhow, Koman Locke had a T'zai Byn archery saddle mastercrafted by House Kurac specifically for his people. Koman Locke was the only person in the world allowed to purchase it and so the ONLY way to get one was to get promoted by Locke as a Scout Trooper. It was a saddle designed for a mounted archer with the T'zai Byn insignia in the leather. If you graduated to a "Scout Trooper", you received one of these saddles at your promotion ceremony along with all of the other "Trooper Stuff". Koman Locke carried one of these himself for his entire life, basically. (Edited to add: They also got a full set of Kuraci camouflage hunting gear. Why? Because being a Scout meant you HAD TO SHOW UP REGULARLY to special training. You COULDN'T just follow the schedule everyone else followed. If you made it as a Scout, it meant you invested a lot more time and special effort arguably than other standard Byn members. Locke personally purchased a full set of this gear for every Scout and they got it at their promotions. I wanted this promotion to be something that felt truly rewarding for the player since it was a lot of effort to get it.)

Lurkers - Sadly, I do not recall that any of Koman Locke's Lurkers ever actually graduated to Trooper-dom in full. I want to say ONE technically graduated, but honestly, their skillset was never high enough to truly award them the title of Lurker. On an OOC level however I felt they deserved the promotion to Trooper, if not Lurker-in-full, because they tried so hard and were a new player. This is just a product of most "sneaky" types getting themselves killed or in trouble before they ever lived long enough for said promotion. There were several promising players who enlisted in this training program but none ever saw it through due to death/shenanigans. However, my point is that these people were also accounted for in terms of providing an OOC Skillset Training Program so the players got a rewarding experience. (I kept the same inky-black set of gear in my locker forever just waiting for one Lurker to earn it, and none of them ever did.)

First Troopers - Koman Locke had three First Troopers as I recall during his time. Roland, Heejo, and Korath. Usually becoming a First Trooper doesn't mean much. It means you get a slightly fancier title, a little more ability to boss Runners around, and that's about it. Koman Locke instead gave his First Troopers his full authority outside of negotiating contracts since The Company would not allow him to. It was announced to every single new Runner that Koman Locke's First Trooper carried his full authority and should be listened to as a Sergeant would be. I did this because OOC'ly I wanted this to be a meaningful and awesome advancement for the player of that First Trooper. I wanted it to be more than an empty title. I wanted it to feel like an actual achievement. As a First Trooper, you got be a Sergeant "in the ranks", basically, if not by title, then by practice. ALSO, Koman Locke had special forearm sheathes mastercrafted by House Kadius for his First Troopers and the Sergeants "under him". When you got promoted to First Trooper or Sergeant, you got one of these forearm sheathes emblazoned with the crest of the T'zai Byn. They were pretty fancy. Koman Locke was also the only person in the world allowed to purchase them, so the only way to get them was to get promoted to First Trooper or Sergeant under Locke/during Locke's reign. This made the promotion hopefully a lot more meaningful, rewarding, and enjoyable for the players.

E) Include other clans in the lives of your underlings and make sure other clans are invested in your underlings. See above. None of those special mastercrafts were cheap. None of them. Each of them cost 5,000 coins out of Locke's pocket to have them mastercrafted initially. Then, each one going forward that Locke purchased cost him at least a few hundred coins a piece out of his own pocket. Locke purchased them all seven to ten at a time as well since he had a lot of underlings. This meant that anytime someone in Locke's unit got promoted, either Salarr, Kadius, or Kurac made a few hundred coins. When you go through literally hundreds of underlings in your career, this means each of those Houses/the players in those Houses stood to make 10 - 15 (or more) large JUST BY KOMAN LOCKE'S PEOPLE DOING WELL. The better Koman Locke's people did, the more of them who got promoted, and the more they worked/succeeded, THE MORE MONEY SALARR, KADIUS, and KURAC stood to make. I did this on purpose. I specifically ensure each mastercraft came from each different House to make absolutely sure every one of those Houses was invested in Koman Locke's people doing well on some level. I did this to ensure they liked us. I did this to ensure they gave us work. I did this to ensure overall that on an OOC level they felt they were involved in my underling's lives, and my underlings felt a connection to the rest of the gameworld.

(Special note that none of those special items were paid for by the T'zai Byn. They were all purchased out of Locke's pocket out of his own money every time. Not important to the conversation...I'm just saying heh. Koman Locke made a ton of money in his time as  Sergeant, but, he spent a ton of money as well on his people. Tens upon tens of larges went into special gear just for his Troopers alone out of his pocket. It didn't put him in the poor house though. When he retired he still had a bank account 65,000 coins strong the day he left the T'zai Byn. If you are successful you can be obscenely wealthy and still spend fat stacks of cash to show your people a good time, and YOU SHOULD.)


E) Now, all of that special training and all of those special titles above couldn't be empty. If they were just empty titles and special gear it wouldn't mean much. It would be shallow and the players would see through that. I had to base all of that in practical realism. That means that all of that training and all of that gear had to serve a real useful purpose so that the players of those characters could feel a seamless connection to their accomplishment and their IC jobs. This is why Koman Locke actually trained his people in unit tactics in the field. Scouts had special scout duties. When it came time to make camp, scouts secured hidden positions and kept their bows out to combat gith archers (which were a major menace during Locke's time). Heavies all trained with shields and their jobs were to create a protective barrier for those scouts were more vulnerable with their bows out. Heavies also functioned as the primary guards for officers in the field. First Troopers were often given special designations as guardians of less skilled Runners and also as helpers in times of combat in terms of issuing commands. Heejo got so good at this he would often issue commands before Locke could, and he was awesome at it. If the group was going to fight something/a camp/a large creature, scouts softened it up with arrows first before the heavies charges in to finish it off. All of this was designed this way to ensure each member of the unit felt their special training, their special title, and their special position served a special purpose that was actually useful and functional. Scouts rode with their bows out ALWAYS, because it REALLY did save many lives in Locke's time. On MANY occasions the only thing that kept gith archers from destroying/killing Locke's unit were scouts with master archery dropping them like flies while the heavies defended the scouts up close so they could keep shooting. Without the heavies, the scouts didn't function, without the scouts, the heavies were sitting ducks for gith archers. Everyone felt needed. Everyone felt useful. This was designed OOC'ly specifically to give this payoff to Locke's underlings and to make them feel like they had accomplished something on every job they went on (hopefully).

Make your people feel useful. Don't tell them they are. Make them actually useful, and then throw them into situations that prove it to them. The players will love it.


I'm done rambling for a bit, if you have any questions/comments I'm all ears. Hopefully you found this useful.

tldr: Clans are barebones. Take what the clan is, and turn it into what you wish it was instead. That's your job as a leader. If your vision of what you think the clan SHOULD BE is awesome enough, your underlings will love what you have created. Look at it as a player. What would you love to be part of as a Runner, a Trooper, a First Trooper, a Sergeant? Well, now is your chance. Create that clan. You have the power. You may never get to be a Runner or Trooper in it, but you can enjoy watching other people be part of what you have created, and as a leader, that should be your greatest personal reward. That goes for every clan or independent group you create, not just the T'zai Byn.

Edited to Add: I forgot one of the most important things. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE whatever you come up with does not need staff assistance to make it happen. The second you create something interesting that people are enjoying, staff are going to try to take it over and make it their own. If you let them decide on the front end that they are going to be part of what you are doing, they are either going to tell you that you can't do it, or see it as an invite to step in and change it into what they personally want it to be. Some staff are great. Some however have never created anything in the game that is awesome. The only way they will ever be able to be part of something like that on the creative end is to take over what you have done/are doing and change it into things they personally want it to be. I had to fight tooth and nail a lot of the time to keep this as my own and to keep staff from trying to change it into something it was never intended to be. It was an uphill battle every single week when this became popular with the playerbase to keep staffers from coming in and trying to take it over. In the end, I did lose that battle. Eventually they destroyed it. But, I had a very good run and kept them out of it/at bay for a very long time mainly because every single thing I did was designed to ensure I did not need staff's help or approval to get it moving and keep it moving. Be a self starter. Be a self promoter. Do not even ask staff to help you. Don't open that door and keep it closed for as along as possible. That's my personal recommendation. (Some staffers did nothing but provide me with encouragement and positive reinforcement along the way. You know who you are. Thank you.)