Basic Guide for the Beginner Group Leader

By Malritch


          For the past 5 years of MMORPG gaming it has been my experience that an effective leader adds a whole other level of enjoyment to the game for many people. I have always found myself drawn to, and enjoying, the company of those who are decisive and organized. When grouped with a leader who has these qualities, I believe you find much more satisfaction and sense of accomplishment at the end of your gaming session. Far more comfortable in a support role, I have always been a reluctant leader but you can learn much from just following adventurers with those qualities. It will definitely make you more comfortable when it comes your time to lead an adventure of your own. Employing steps from this guide, that I prepared more for my own organization than anything, has helped me become a more effective group leader and to find success in the adventures I have planned.

          For extended exploration party hunting, or just a general pick-up group, to boost the enjoyment and effectiveness of your group, as leader, you should take some steps to organize yourself. Some, or most, of these may seem simple common sense to those who have some MMORPG experience but if you have little experience with group leadership these may help a little. Note that this is geared more to an extended hunt with a regular group or guild but many of the steps can be put into action fairly quickly in a pick-up group situation as well.

1. Pre-planning and Preparation:

a) Basic Information: Date, Time, Start Location and Objectives should be given in advance via email, message board, or website if your group has access to one. I like to set two start times, one for when the group should be forming up and another about a half hour later for when I really want the group to start on the adventure/hunt. Don�t be afraid to enforce the start time. If someone is late� they can catch up. Nothing agitates people like being on time and then sitting around for an hour while the group waits on stragglers to show up. Make sure you let people know what your objectives/goals are for the hunt/adventure. Not much is worse than wandering around aimlessly without any idea what your searching for or hunting down.

b) Rules & Guidelines: Pre-listing your rules of the hunt is a good idea. The email, message board, or website is also a good place for this information so that anyone coming to join has a good indication of how things will be run. If they can�t operate under your set of guidelines then chances are you don�t really want them with you anyway. (More on that in section #2)

c) Participants: Have a good idea of who is joining in for the adventure. Again, this is something you can determine by having people reply to your email, message board thread, or in-game. It is also a good idea to have some indication of what skills they have so you may determine how best to assign Specific Duties. (More on that in section #3)

d) Background: The amount of background needed will vary on the type of adventurers you hang out with. Some, like my regular fellowship, like to role-play a bit while adventuring. You may want to generate a background story to set the mood and/or give purpose to the adventure. Other more technical groups may want specific knowledge of what mobs/encounters may be in the area of the hunt, waypoints, etc.

2. Lay down Specific Rules:

          There are always those surprise encounters where all hell breaks loose and all your planning and preparation go right out the window but it is still a good idea to set up some basic rules and guidelines for your group to follow. Here are some I employ, in no specific order.

a) Preparation: Make sure your group has all the necessary supplies for your adventure. This will vary depending on the amount of time you anticipate your group will be on the hunt. Medics need to have an appropriate amount of Stimpacks and Medpacks. Others need to have a good supply of Traps, Powerups, Attribute enhancing foods, etc. You don�t need unintended downtime due to crafting requirements.

b) Pulling: Make sure your group always pulls from range on unfamiliar mobs. (Gives your group the chance to run like hell if you need to.) Also a good idea to pull from range on social mobs utilizing group members with traps and ranged weapon skills to scatter and confuse any extra critters that may want to join in the fight. Use of traps to slow or inhibit your prey allows you to kill or badly damage a mob before it even gets close enough to melee. You�ll take less damage, deaths and downtime.

c) Travel: Make sure you get your group to stay tight during travel. Some characters have the ability to move at a better rate than others but you can�t let the slower ones straggle behind too much, especially if your navigating around hostile mobs. The auto follow feature is handy, but there are times when you will need your group to maneuver individually in order to pass through cities, buildings, and areas where there may be an overabundance of mobs.

d) Healing: Make sure your group stays tight to the medics so they don�t have to run around trying to heal. If you are all in a 6M radius of your main medic then he/she doesn�t have to scramble to heal you. (Range for healing does increase for Combat Medics as their skills increase so check with your healers to see if that radius can be expanded). Make sure when camps are set up than anyone in the group with entertaining ability is using their skills to heal mind wounds and that medics are tending the wounds of health and action. If done quickly and effectively you�ll be back adventuring/hunting in short order with minimal downtime. (More on Camps in section #4)

e) Chat: Because I have no access to the �Squad Leader� skill that allows for a separate command chat that appears in the middle of the group members screen, I like to keep the �Group Chat� channel clear of other banter. Have your group use �Spatial Chat� for anything not really relevant to your mission. That way the important information will stand out better.

f) Behavior: If hunting with people you are not really familiar with you�ll want to set rules for what you do, and do not, find acceptable language, behavior and ethics. Most often I group or lead a specific bunch of adventurers that have been together for a long, long time and this problem is seldom an issue. Let your group know what kind of consequences you will impose on behavior you deem unacceptable and follow through if those guidelines are broken.

3. Delegate Specific Duties:

          The biggest key to success, in my opinion, is to surround yourself with quality people. Adventurers with the skills and maturity to handle the responsibility of specific duties. I believe it is very important to empower your group members by delegating responsibilities to them. It not only enhances their game experience, it also allows them to learn and grow into a point where they are more comfortable in leadership roles themselves. Here are some duties that I assign when putting together a mission. Note that depending on the size of your group, more than one of these duties may fall on a single player.

a) Combat Leader: I use this group member to be the main assist and mob puller in most cases although he/she is given the power to call upon other members to utilize their skills in pulling (such as use of traps) and assigning others to melee. In essence he/she is my battlefield coordinator. I assign an alternate member to assume the Combat Leader role if the group encounters problems like death, link dead, and emergency situations that may arise.

b) Main Medic: Being a medic myself, I usually take on this role. If the group is larger than 6 people. I highly recommend having support healers in charge of specific group members. Again, assign a back up to take the Main Healer duties should the need arise.

c) Travel Leader: Many times it is easier to assign another to actually move the group from place to place. It leaves you, the group leader, with hands free to command and instruct. Assign a �driver� for the group. Ask other group members not to private tell the driver while in motion. It distracts him/her from getting the group safely to the next destination without incident. Again, assign a back up to take the Travel Leader duties should the need arise.

d) Keeper of the Peace: Assign a group member to keep and call out a Loot/Harvesting order for kills as well as a Camp making rotation if you have multiple members with such skills. (See more in section 4.)

4. Delegate Specific Loot/Harvest/Camp Rotation:

          Developing a set order in which things are distributed keeps experience flowing more evenly and everyone feeling like they are contributing and gaining something by being in the group. I suggest an Alpha Order (alphabetically by first name) to facilitate this on both Looting/Harvesting and Camp Making. Currently some of the /group commands in SWG aren�t functioning. It is hard to tell what is being looted, harvested, etc. I would recommend staying away from a �Master Looter� until they have the system to the point where you can see that information and until you are very comfortable with those you are grouped with.

5. Designate Specific Goals/Missions/Objectives:

          Wandering aimlessly for hours without any direction from a group leader frustrates the hell out of most adventurers. It is your responsibility to make sure that you are giving, maintaining, and keeping the group on track to whatever goals, missions, and objectives you have as a group and what process you want to employ to see the successful completion of those objectives. A simple who, what, why, where, when type of formula will work for the basics that you need to pass along to your group when setting up the adventure

6. Decision Making:

          If you struggle with making decisions quickly and giving directions to others you may need to rethink being a group leader until you are more comfortable doing those things. Your group will expect you to quickly handle emergency situations. Your group will need you to command well to get them re-organized in the face of chaos. You need to be a little tough while being fair. You need to heed constructive, good advice from your group members and be flexible when their solutions to predicaments may be better than your own. Be strong enough to admit when you make a mistake and give credit to those around you who have preformed well. When you do so you will earn respect. Right or wrong, make decisions quickly�often times you learn and grow far more through the lessons of failure than of success. In the end though� you�ll win more than you lose.

7. Ending the Adventure:

I like to end an adventure back in a city cantina. I try and make a point of thanking each member for their contributions and get some feedback on how they thought the adventure went. Analyzing what worked and didn�t work will make your future leadership endeavors better especially in the early experiences of a new game like SWG.
 

Regards,
Malritch