Administration: Intro and Pt.1

[mutuhaha]

Same as WWc thread, just that more new people tend to come here than WWc (i think). Breaking this up into a few threads as it is quite long.

To administrate a Water-war

I figured that since more people want to start their own water wars and promote the hobby, I decided to type out share some of my experience and tips during my tenure as a wargames planner; hopefully it’ll be easier for people to organize water wars and avoid as many mistakes/blunders as possible.

Normally, for small-scale battles, not much official administration is required; as such casual battles are normally informally moderated. In the exceptions, where the small-scale battles are not casual, but hard-core, administrative problems like venue, rules and logistics tend to be easily settled due to small-size and past player experience.

Real administration is thus only needed in larger events, in this article I’ll discuss matches of total participant population of 30 and above and things to look out for when planning a game.

And definition of terms, just to clarify:
Participant: Anybody involved officially in the game, for example, players, marshals, planners.
Player population: Total players altogether, from both/all teams participating; in other words, all the players.
Marshals: Dedicated non-player officials whose job is to enforce rules, ensure safety and in certain scenarios, fill game roles.
Player moderators: Players who have executive power to call timeouts, settle disputes and other marshal powers. He can be considered a non-dedicated official, and can be either nominated by the committee from the player population or he could be a committee member stepping into the player population to assume that role. He has the same responsibilities as a full marshal.
Committee/Planners: The overall in-charge body of people who is responsible for the planning, safety aspects and execution of the said water war.

1. Organizing your committee.

Prerequisite: A certain amount of motivation and commitment. A scenario idea would be very helpful too.

Firstly, I am assuming that at this first step, you have motivation and perhaps an idea of what you envision the water war to be. If you do, good, if not -__-.

Ok, so you do. Firstly, on your own, you test the waters and ask around who would be interested to come for your event. Ideally you should have an idea of how many people you want coming for this event. For example, a range may be 30-40. At this point, don’t worry about the exact attendance, which can be finalized later. Once you’ve deemed that there is sufficient interest in your target audience, you can move on to the next step in this phase.

The second thing to do in such large scale water wars would be to form a committee to help you out in your administration. This committee should allow for adequate representation from your target audience, such that your player population is satisfied with their involvement in the planning process. A good number would be about 1 committee member per 6 players (e.g. 5 members per 30 players, 7 members per 40 players).

Try to choose respectable and upright people to form your committee, they will give your administration the clout to do their job.

The people chosen should be:
- Responsible
- Level-headed
- Mature
- Motivated
- Rather free (i.e. committed)

Of course, in this world, such people may be in short supply. I have been very blessed to get quite a lot of people with these traits, but others may not be so fortunate. If that is the case, use your discretion to decide on your cabinet. Bear in mind that closest friends may not necessarily be the best people for the job, so don’t blindly choose all your good friends without considering their traits. Besides, your friends can be very valuable in the player population, as they would be the ones making your game work from within the player population. So if they get annoyed that they aren’t in the committee, you can explain to them their importance in other vocations. Likewise, those who you aren’t on excellent terms with could be good choices. So long as both of you act professionally and mature and if both share the goal of organizing a good water war, then you could actually take a step toward improving real-life relations and gaining a friend in the long-run.

Adults may be a good choice if planners of the same generation are scarce; though having adults organize has its drawbacks too, especially if the inter-generation dynamic in your neighbourhood isn’t very good. Generally, adult planned games can be very good, although I can imagine how it could backfire big-time. Safest option would be to get same generation committee members. Although, a few non-official but involved adults will be helpful in things like transport, acquiring battlefield usage and foreseeing safety problems, so when organizing a water war, make sure a few responsible adults know your location, timeframe and other details in case of emergencies.

Do not choose people who have a tendency to explode in anger. These people could seriously damage your administration’s credibility and effectiveness. No matter how close a friend the bomberman is, avoid picking him, or at least give him a role where he can’t do too much damage (which really seriously thinking about it, is nowhere >_>). Pragmatic and utilitarian people are way safer choices. The basic principle is: choose wisely.

Thirdly, now you have your committee members. However, they do not have a role yet. Assign/elect/pass out roles for each committee member. Such roles include:

Out-game
1. Communications to each participating group
These people are the middlemen between the committee and the participating teams, letting them know official information such as venue, rules and armoury options. They also do things convey teams’ registry information to the committee’s log. Basically, they’re like two-way radios between the teams and the committee. As committee members, they will have access to sensitive information concerning other teams and as such, these people should be honest and not divulge information to teams which could give them an advantage in the tournament.

2. Logistics
For acquiring all the materials you need. If you're playing a CTF match, you need flags, if you're using a soakertag-like system, you need tags. In any case, you would need first-aid materials for large events. He should also handle the budget for all these materials and alert the committee before (not after) things become too expensive. He should know where the best stores to buy stuff are and be good at handling money. At the end, he should have receipts for the stuff he bought and maybe together with the committee, audit the accounts.

3. Permission acquiration for battlefields
This guy makes sure that the tournament location(s) are safe, legal to use. If permission is required, ask for it from the relevant authorities. He should explore most of the battlefield and detect possible hazards in the area, such as steep terrain, wild animals, dangerous spiky plants and all imaginable problems which could occur with regards to the battlefield. He should then figure out the battlefield plans (medic, marshal, respawn locations) together with the committee. As the PR guy, he should be ready to talk to parents/guardians about the tournament and have some grasp of diplomacy.

4. First-aid
The overall I/C for first aid matters out-game. He makes sure he has first aid materials ready and an ingame medic roster if need be. Ideally, he should know some first aid himself or at least have a manual and a cool head. If no one else to help you in the tournament, you MUST (I emphasize for good reason) at least have this guy. Adults can be useful in this area.

Split these jobs, and any others you may need among your organizing team.

In-game:
1. Marshals:
Help you to enforce rules in-game. For more on marshals, see the soaker gaming rules article that's been formulated by members of the iSoaker forums. They should also have a waterproofed form of communication in case of emergencies.

2. Medics:
Have a few of these, make sure they have a means of waterproofed communication to overall command and emergency services. They must also obviously have first aid materials to render first aid. Medics also have absolute power to stop the game in the area to get undisturbed access to casualty.
Protocol:
- If injury does not prevent the casualty from moving, move the casualty to an alternate location to facilitate more effective aid.
- In case of minor injury, render first aid and allow casualty to sit out if he wishes or if injury is deemed in need of recovery.
- In case of moderate injury, call overall official command and notify the in-charge. Render first aid and remove casualty from the game permanently if necessary.
- In case of serious injury, don’t panic. Be careful about moving the casualty. Sometimes, especially in suspected spinal fractures and organ injury, it may be best not to move the casualty at all. Declare a timeout and call emergency services immediately, then call overall command. If medic is experienced, conduct the appropriate measures, if not, don’t make the casualty’s condition worse with amateur treatment. Best would be to follow what the emergency people say. Hopefully this won’t happen.

3. Overall in charge:
A guy who looks after the overall state of the game and must have a bird’s-eye view of the event. When the battlefield is big, he can appoint henchmen to help him do his job in different sectors. He should have waterproofed communications devices like handphones or walkie talkies. Preferably handphones as walkie talkies can’t normally reach emergency services as easily. He must be able to preempt potential problems and quickly solve them or have a placeholder solution. For example, if Team A started before schedule, then the best possible solution would be to get Team B going right away to balance off Team A’s headstart. The overall IC must also have a good grasp of the rules and has to ensure fairness, safety and fun of the overall game. For example, if people are getting tired and wish to stop after a few hours, then the OIC could contact team leaders and ask if they’d like to conclude the match, which on agreement, the outcome can be pronounced.
Whoever you get for this job, he has to be good, because being a good OIC is extremely tough and requires plenty of nerve, brains, physical stamina (when running around) and diplomatic skills.



Edited By mutuhaha on 1180021398

[mutuhaha]

Sorry about the double post, but note to post response in the Pt.4 and Pt.5 thread, not here.