The PR Proposal

Preface

Before continuing, ensure that you have read and follow the Immortal Proposal Process.

Keep in mind that PR is a unique area of Immortal work and it is required that whichever character you put up for promotion should be relatively well-known to the Legend community as a whole, a distinction that will be made by the Immortal staff. If we find that the character does not meet our requirements, you will be asked to pick a different alt or to try again after waiting the required time mentioned in the Immortal Proposal Process.

PR Guidance

As you decide what your project will be, please keep these requirements in mind:

Your project must serve one or more of the PR department goals, this does not include a new game, a series of games, running games, or enabling others to run games.

Your proposal should work to improve one or more of the department goals, if you aren't sure consult the Head of PR.

If your project is event oriented, include how often you'd run specific events and/or make variations in order to maintain player interest.

Sell yourself! Make your proposal as interesting and exciting as you can (enthusiasm is contagious). Remember that your project needs to be substantial. Think big, and think about how much work your friends put into their building proposals. That's what we want from you.

Be sure you choose your proposal based on what YOU are interested in. You'll have to be the one doing it, after all.

What a Proposal Should Include

Please include your answers to the following, up until the example section, in paragraph form. Give a lot of details so that we can see and appreciate your thinking.

General overview of the proposed project

1. What do you intend to do?
2. How long will it take (a month? two?)
3. If it is a series of events, on what dates will it take place (May Day? the Eve of St. Agnes?)
   1. If not, when will it occur?
4. What parts of the mud might be involved?
   1. What groups of players?

Requirements to carry out the project

1. What will you need to complete the project?
2. What immortal help will you need (that is, what kind of effects are you trying to achieve)?
3. What (if any) items and/or mobs would be needed?
4. Will new rooms need to be written?
   1. Would existing ones need to be modified?
5. What kinds of advertising will you need to do?
6. What kinds of controls will you need (for instance, how might you keep newbies safe from aggressive mobs?)
7. What kind of time frame is involved?

Purpose of the Project

1. How is this project different from other PR projects that you are aware of, already taking place?
2. What is unique about your project?
3. How would the players and/or immortal staff benefit from it?
4. What information might it provide?
5. How would your project make Legend a better place?

A Detailed Explanation of one Part

Take all or part of your project and show us how you would go about it, step by step. Include a projected time line if applicable (i.e. first week, second week). How would you organize it? Tinyplotters should include one scenario. If your project requires advertising, write up a brief social media ad, or article for the Legendary Times. Show us that you've worked out how you'd get all or part of your project accomplished. This section also gives you a chance to display your knowledge of Legend, (since you'll need to be working with various parts of the mud in the course of your project). If your project involves writing, include an example of what you are writing, such as a new LT article, a post about Legend for a forum, show us how good an author you really are.

You as a PR Immortal

Who are you?

1. How much time and energy will you devote to PR duties as an immortal? Be realistic in your appraisal of your time, as being online and visible with your immortal is one of the most important aspects of the PR job.
2. What hours are you most often logged on?
   1. What days?
3. Where do you live?
4. Have you ever had to deal with upset or angry people in a professional capacity?
5. What is your attitude about complaints and mistakes?
6. What is your greatest weakness as a person and an applicant for this position?
   1. How will you try to compensate for or overcome this weakness?

Your Abilities

These questions are designed to measure your creativity and your ability to organize and plan events. Please answer according to the directions, and take as much space as you feel you need.

Events, Games and Maintenance

Answer all 5.

1. Describe a fun and new game that you could run for players.
   1. Can you run it regularly and have a tournament of champions?
   • If it is a variation on an existing game, what is different?
2. You suddenly realize that it is a somewhat obscure holiday (Arbor Day, St. Andrew's Day, Flag Day, Father's Day, Children's Day, Winter/Summer Solstice, Boxing Day, choose your favorite -- or pick a historical date worth celebrating), and you'd like to run a themed game. Using existing games (such as flags, trivia, recall tag) or anything else that wouldn't require the building of new mobs or objects, briefly describe that game.
3. Due to a freakish bug, all of the mobkill in the game is disabled, and will be for a few hours. While the coders scramble to fix the problem, what would you do to try to keep logging in a fun experience for players?
4. You've been asked to give a lecture in the OOC. What topic would you choose? (Could be IC, OOC, historical, game-oriented, RL, etc.)
5. Which part of PRs current responsibilities (OOC, RP, etc.) do you feel has been ignored or not recently updated?
   1. How would you make it better?

Communicating

Answer all 6.

1. Ellen the newbie has just made her character in London. Being totally new to muds (or mushes), she's sent a tell to you asking for help getting started. What kind of advice/help would you give her?
2. Frizzer is brand new to the mud, and has shown up in Klein. He's confused by the German and insulting Legend as being inferior to his other muds, which he left after a playerwipe. The players are starting to go after him a little bit on chat. What would you say, to him, on chat, etc.?
3. Anoni wants to roleplay a mouse, but isn't sure how to get started. She's sad and disappointed that she can't have an animal description to make her look like a mouse. What might you suggest as an alternate description?
   1. What strings and zips and other props might you suggest?
4. Leonardo has been working to start up a RP family, the Balduccis. Now, he's interested in founding a clan and building up more in depth roleplay. What would you suggest to him about building up a strong clan and interesting roleplay?
5. You're adding a new section to the Web Page -- what section would you add, and why?
6. The Legendary Times is one of our departmental projects. Briefly describe or give examples of items you personally might contribute that perhaps no one else can, or explain a new section you'd organize on a regular basis.

Dealing with problems

Answer all 4.

1. A player who you personally dislike is disrupting a game that you are running. What actions would you take to minimize the disruption and deal with the offender?
2. A friend of yours confides in one of your mortals that they have found an unreported bug and are exploiting it. You think they have only gained a very minor advantage in game play as you judge such things. What actions do you take or not take?
3. With the agreement of the majority of the immortals, plenty of advance warning, and after thoughtful discussion with your fellow immortals, a new code change is put in. You personally disagree with the change in principle. Players complain to you about the change and want to know why it was forced on them and who is behind this new example of the immortal conspiracy. How do you resolve this public relations dilemma?
4. A player complains to you of sexual harassment. What is your role/duty as a PR immortal? Would it make a difference if it was a complaint regarding race instead of sex?

Dealing with Requests

For each of the following description requests, assume that there are no keyword conflicts with existing player descriptions. Follow the guidelines in "help description", answer all five of the parts below, as they apply.

1. State whether you would register the description or not.
2. If not, what explanation would you give to the player?
3. If you're unsure, what questions would you ask? of whom?
4. Would you suggest any changes to the description? what changes?
5. List a possible zip string which might go with the description.

Desc A

Name: Mistry
Short: a figure hidden in a dense mist
Long: Wisps of mist alert you to an eerie figure hidden in a shroud of darkness.

Desc B

Name: Lenore
Short: a cute little dead girl
Long: The faint smell of formaldehyde lingers suspiciously around a little girl.

Desc C

Name: Gottfried
Short: Hauptmann von Luttke
Long: The air seems unusually serene around a tall Prussian officer.

Desc D

Short: a witch with dancing green eyes
Long: A vacuous young witch with dancing green eeyes stands beaming at the world.

Desc E

Short: The Dark Lady
Long: A warrioress of darkness emerges from the shadows of your soul.

Desc F

Short: a confused man enclosed in smoke
Long: A man enclosed in smoke pets his bong lovingly as he inhales deeply.

Example

Included here is an example of answers for the first few questions on this proposal.

• This person is interested in tinyplots, getting players and mobs interacting in rp scenarios.

General overview of the proposed project

I propose to do monthly invasions (IE, mob attacks of specific areas), mostly with historical groups of enemies (for instance, Picts vs. Romans). This would include the appropriate area(s) on the mud, (for instance, Roman Britain and Pict country) and would be open to all appropriate levels of players. This could be a fairly wide range, depending upon the types of mobs present in the given area. Although playerkilling might be involved, the intention of my project is to have players killing mobs rather than each other (so if a player signs up with the Romans, he or she would kill Picts). The players would be given motivation to help repel the invasion. For instance, in my Roman/Picts scenario, I'd offer some kind of pendants (a special string) to the winning side. I'd also like to award titles, if that seems appropriate (such as "Defender of the Pict Tribe").

Requirements to carry out the project

For instance, our said "Invasions" proposer would need to tell us what mobs and objects that would be needed, and what kind of assistance they would need from the Building and/or Player Relations department. They would need to consider how they keep newbies safe from aggressive mobs, as well as whether to keep the area out of bounds from players not participating in the roleplay. Plus, they need to tell us what kinds of advertising they would need (i.e. in the Legendary Times, on the boards, and/or in newsgroups).

The applicant might write:

"I'd need some kind of help in order to animate the Picts and Romans, so that each side could have a leader that would recruit players and talk on chat. I'd keep newbies out by putting up lots of signs and patrolling the area (and maybe with a special mob if possible). I wouldn't keep non-participating players away, though, but rather, try to get them involved (if only as innocent bystanders caught up in the fray). However, they'd need to register with me in order to be eligible for prizes should their side win. I'd advertise in the LT and welcome boards. In addition, I'd do a couple of local posts with mobs in the Roman Britain area."

Purpose of the Project

Thus, the "Invasions" author would need to explain why exactly monthly invasions of mobs in various areas would benefit the mud. The applicant might say:

"These invasions would give the players a way to combine killing mobs with roleplay (something that can be hard to do). They'd also enhance the historical aspects of LegendMUD, since all of these invasions would be based on actual (or at least legendary) invasions. Players would have fun killing mobs, roleplaying their various roles, and even learn a bit more history. Moreover, the roles they play during the invasions could easily extend to their adventures outside of the Invasions scenarios."

A Detailed Explanation of one Part

Returning to our Invasions author, they would need to develop one invasion event in detail, and plot the scenario out, including the (planned) actions of the various mobs involved.

The applicant might write the following:

"The battle starts when a stray Roman arrow fired from the garrison as Hadrian's Wall hits a Pict hunter. Immediately, his comrades come out in force to avenge his death. The battle will last at least one RL hour, or until the Picts are driven back behind Hadrian's Wall. The battle will be announced through Chat and lots of hollering. (Chat Pict hunter: Argh! That beastly Roman just shot an arrow. Chat Pict Chieftain: We must avenge our brother!)

In addition, I'll place an "ad" in the LT and on the welcome board that'll go something like this (only more fleshed out) 
'Ever wished that you had lived during the thrilling times when the Picts battled to free themselves of Roman interference? Ever wanted to take the role of a Pict, Roman, or innocent bystander? Here's your chance! Join us for battle and mayhem on July 10, at 3 PM CST.'

This will be one in a series of invasions. Once I've run this scenario, I'll run some others in various parts of the mud. If this scenario develops its own momentum, I may even run some sequels or additions to it (and maybe work some of the other areas into the story arc if possible)."