Leadership

[Starshadow]

Originally posted by Lyssandra:
Go ahead and list why you think Clementine would make a good leader for that group. I'd be interested in knowing your reasoning, even if no one else would. [img]smile.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are 5 qualities that I personally look for in a leader for a Caer Falken Inn Party. Some of these qualities make a good leader in any campaign setting, and others may disagree with them, but here they are.

1. The player is intimately familiar with the game, setting and rules. This allows the character to lead through knowledge and experience, allows the DM to concentrate on other aspects of the game, rather than constant hand holding for less experienced players and understands the nuances of tactics in the given paradigm.

2. The character itself should be qualified. Flighty characters with low intelligence, a far too chaotic nature, dark and brooding loners and such, make poor leaders, even if all the characteristics of #1 above are met by the player. If the other characters do not like or respect the character who is to lead, it will not work.

3. The player is dedicated and reliable enough to take on the role. Players who miss every 3rd or 4th game may meet requirements #1 and #2 above perfectly, but if the leader is not around when it comes time to play, then he or she fails to be an adequate leader, as events and circumstances slip away from him or her, not to mention experience points and levels.

4. The player is creative and imaginative. This makes for a good player playing a good character, but is especially important for a leader to show an example by. I greatly admire the fact that in this group, we have players who are capable of wide diversity in role playing characters of different backgrounds. This ability prevents the game, and the characters in it, from going stale. A player who thinks deeply enough about creating character backgrounds and looks forward to the type of Prestige Class they want to steer him or herself into shows a level of dedication and love for that character, and by doing so, shows the same respect to the environment in which those characters live. These characters, brought to life by a spark of the player's imagination, make much better leaders than the canned profiles rolled off the old e-Tools an hour befor egame time.

5. The player has enough social skills, judgement, fairness and ability to deal with other players on a personal level, as well as the various characters on a role playing level. This is perhaps the hardest part of being (and finding) a good leader, even moreso in real life than in a game. A leader needs to know when to be firm and when to compromise, and like the DM, must learn to account for the variety of moods and skill levels of the players. As a DM, I have had to learn what pisses off certain players, what makes them grumpy and moody, and what they will whine about, as well as what excites them, motivates them and facilitates a really great time. But often, I have to deal with those issues in a cold, unemotional, referee capacity, whereas the party leader must be there in the trenches whipping up the characters to great morale. I lay out the path, but the party leader must urge the players to take, or not take each one of those paths. I think we were all in agreement that the taking of a leader speeds up game play. There is less sitting around wondering what everyone else wants to do.

Kel leads the Ring Quest characters, Merilin the Devonshire group and Kor lead the experimental teach-Mark-to-play-this-game group that a few people played in many months ago. The original group, of which three characters survive, had no leader, and was made up of three very strong willed, good players with practically incapatible characters. A leader at the start of that game may have altered the mood, making a more cohesive unit from the ultralawful paladin, ultrachaotic rogue and unpredictable barbarian.

At this point in time, there are only 4 players whom I believe could make good leaders in any party, and three of them have already done so (and one of those is probably no longer even qualified due to external circumstances). I am confident that others will come to be so qualified in the future, but aren't there yet.

Nancy has never been the appointed leader and has been at every Caer Falken Inn game since the inception of the game except on ONE occasion. The only people that beat that record are the DM and his wife, and I think she would happily have played without us if she could have. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

With Clementine, she meets all of the above requirements and has a perfect leader archetype, a ranger who is warrior, spellcaster, beastmaster and pathfinder (Aragorn became king and was a ranger!).

In addition, she has been playing this game as long as I have, knows the rules better than any player here (sometimes I think better than I do) and has the added distinction of knowing our gaming interface better than all of us combined, being the one who facilitated our evolution from Parachat.

Add all of this to the fact that I am guessing no one else is even interested in being leader again (and I don't even know if SHE is willing now), and I think this task is perfect for her.

These are my opinions...I welcome yours.

[Dramavictim]

Since it's on the board I figured it was fair game [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'd like to mention that I thought Vil (R.I.P.) was a great leader as characters went.

As for Clementine, I can't see a single in character reason (as opposed to out of character reasons like "I don't want to play Party Leader" if that comes up) why she'd be refused the leadership position if she wanted it. She is a fellow worshipper of Stellari, and that would mean Del would if anything be more inclined to trusting her judgement (I mean, hey, she picked the right goddess to follow [img]wink.gif[/img] ). The Ranger class, as Starshadow pointed out, often seems suited to leadership roles though their priorities may become enemy focused at times(and so far, even her hatred of undead hasn't caused Clementine to lose her head yet).

Lastly, while Clementine is a quiet sort, those times she has spoken up, she has shown an interest in party harmony, respecting others, and fairness.

I think all the leader types have either had, or had to develop that even though styles, naturally vary. Egos can bump, or even bruise, but anyone in a party leader position has to be willing to offer the peace pipe and sometimes even swallow a little pride for the good of the group. Lawful characters would do it because they like order and seek the greater good for the group, Chaotic ones because they recognize the rights of the other individuals to BE individuals no less important than the leader her/himself. Not every character can, or is made to do this, but Clementine might have the stuff [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Starshadow]

Originally posted by Dramavictim:

I'd like to mention that I thought Vil (R.I.P.) was a great leader as characters went.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't know how I forgot about Vilarneseh (who really should have been more memorable)...probably because that party is dead, and the others mentioned still live. Also because I knew his player had been a leader and was indeed mentioned in that list of 4, but as a different character.

This post by Dramavictim brings to the forefront of my mind something I have been thinking about since Lyssandra's post about character future. I thought she opened up a good subject for discussion, and was disappointed with the lack of discussion to follow it.

Therefore I am opening another thread, revisiting her question and bringing up one of my own. We have a tendency of going off on tangents, and I prefer to keep specific threads isolated to avoid confusion when we need to refer back to them.

[Carbon14sample]

Clementine has my vote. Its almost time for the game so dont have time to elaborate.

Finley