Returning to his trusty Relby, Teon fired two sonic grenades from its built-in micro-grenade launcher. Although the first one jammed, he quickly freed the spent round from the weapon’s chamber before firing another with all of the speed and efficiency of a career soldier.

THOOMP

The explosive hit the ground near the Elite’s feet and exploded, sending a wave of ionized air surging outward with an audible crack. Anything caught in the pressure wave’s path would learn just how disorienting the compact explosives could be.

The Elite moved, reflexes sharp, still, but they were moving slower from the damage taken leading up. They flew away from the jungle tree line, and skidded back into a prone position before pushing themself up with cybernetic resilience.

When the incoming fire in the smoke ceased, Tomora took the sounds to mean the elite was back on Teon. He took the chance to finally activate his infrared visor. Getting off his back was a momentary struggle with his neck still singeing, but his feet found their balance and steadied. Tomora’s features creased beneath his helmet as he took aim again, free hand hovering at the ready.

The damned machine-freak twisted in perfect timing with the first shot, deflecting the slug off the edge of his tilting breastplate. Tomora held the trigger and slapped the hammer back in the fraction of a second it took his target to shift a leg and counterbalance. The second shot nailed the elite’s gut before it could dodge again.

The Technocratic Elite lurched, and black, oily ichor spewed from their lips. Their expression remained muted and blank, and without eyes, it was hard to read if there was any trace of fear. But body language was unmistakable. They hunched, staggered around drunkenly, and tried to lift their lightsaber up defensively.

But they did not attack or move.

After nodding in Tomora’s direction to acknowledge his successful shot. Then, he proceeded with his own. The first blaster shot missed, but the second one aimed at the Elite’s face struck true. Teon fired while walking forward, squeezing the trigger to fire a blaster bolt empowered by his rifle’s Trandoshan Tripler and other modifications designed to make it pack a much stronger punch than it would have otherwise.

The lightsaber hummed and reflexive training sent it in a tight arc to try and intercept Teon’s shots. They were able to turn away the first, but in their fatigue, their cybernetically fueled muscles twitched and spasmed and moved more slowly than they needed to. The modified blasts tore through the artificial-Miraluka’s eyeless visage, splitting muscle, sinew, bone, and cybernetic nanite alike. The head snapped unnaturally from the impact. The body slumped awkwardly and wilted like a cut flower into a boneless puddle of black ichor mixing around them.

Only Teon and Tomora remained.

Read the full mission log here

Exarch Report 11

The exerpt from above is a proof of concept I wanted to run that simulates the ACC's "Scenario" halls using the RP infastructure. For those unfamiliar, this is a "2vE" type of collaborative writing, wherein the "E" (environment) is an enemy NPC piloted by the DM (me). So this RP was Bril and Techie rolling/writing against me contorlling the new Collective Enemy prototype.

You can see the side by side of the map to show how the Simulation works, or how I like to visualize it.

As Exarch, I will continue to highlight these missions as best I can, and try to keep running more proof-of-concepts to increase the different variety of RPs players can run. Special thanks to Xen for letting me create a new NPC CS for the Collective.

For the rest of this report, I will be covering the RP Survey Results and talk about how it will affect what we do going forward for the RP Supplemental Society.

Table of Contents

• Development
• Surey Results
• Helpful Resources
• Closing

Development

Wally’s Guide to Running Organizing an RP herding cats

The name is a work in progress, but I’m still working on a Shadow Academy exam that will be a general guide to running a Brotherhood RP activity. This should not be seen in any way as a definitive “this is what you must do” and like the Pirate Code is more of a guideline based on what I’ve seen work and create fun, successful RP experiences. It’s a work in progress, and I’ll be sharing what I end up doing with a few DMs I’ve seen step up and get their hands into the possibilities. This is something I work on in my spare time, but something I’m very passionate about and believe can be a helpful resource to continuing to build confidence in members to run more RPs.

I will be using the results from the Survey, specifically the section where previous DMs have given feedback.

New Staff Member Hired

I'd like everyone to help me welcome fan favorite Anderson (Appy, Zappy, etc.) to the Exarch Staff!

Appy has been a stalwart force for the RP Society even before it's launch. He was actually originally supposed to be our 4th staff member, but had to forgoe the responsibility due to real life circumstances. So perhaps it is fate that the opportunity came back around and he proved to be the perfect for what I'm looking for to continue the momentum of the Exarch Staff and the Envoy Corps as well.

I have personally replied or reached out to every other applicant that we got. If you still have questions or concerns, please DM or email me and let me know. I'm always happy to be transparent and honest with how I handle staffing.

I also want to remind everyone that inhales

You do not need to be Exarch staff to run RPs or help others run them. The staff is just here to help set the example and lead the charge

exhales

Survey Results

Right, what was I doing again? Oh, yes, survey results. This next part is going to be a bit longer than usual, because I really wanted to focus on answering people directly since you actually took the time to give us data we can use. If you've ever sat around on DB chats and complained that the DC doesn't listen, or your ideas don't matter, I'm here to tell you that your voice always matters and has a chance to be heard. That's why it was important to me to spend nearly an entire report going over this. That said...inhales

RP Exam

So, no surprise here. 29% felt the Exam was helpful, which means it's still a success. The remaining 71% figured things out on their own, or likely bothered someone to explain or answer questions (which is fine) on discord.

Either way, I think it shows its value, and it has not discouraged me from trying to finish my vision for the "DM Guide SA Exam" I mentioned earlier

Player Motivation and Experience

90% of of members who participated in the survey confirm that they are motived to RP for fun. This is something we already knew going in, but it's nice to know that at the end of the day, no matter what we try to do with the Society and Trophies, that people are going to RP for fun.

This is great when paired with the data that 77.5% of members had a "positive overall" experience with RP. The remaining 22.6% had "mixed" responses, with only one member specifically saying they've had a "negative" experience.

The second most motivating elements of RP Society was "Unlocking new CS perks", followed by reaching the top rank.

Apparently 5 members felt that I bullied encouraged them to give RP a try, and only 1 member said that they were not interested at all (which is totally fair).

Lastly, what's interesting here is that 71% feel that Roleplaying activities have made members feel more connected to our sandbox, CSs, lore, and the possessions system. I think this is a really good thing.

We did have one member specifically mention some negative-to-mixed experiences, but we're going to do our best to try and see if there's steps we can take as a staff to help. But we are not going to be able to realistically make every single member happy.

We will certainly try, though.

RP Player Trophy Analysis

The majority of members feel that the progress through the RP Player trophy is fair and fun. A few members did express that they wished that some ranks were easier to get, and a very small number felt that the rewards that were interseting seemed unatainable.

That last part is...the hardest part of coming up with Society awards. I don't honestly know what the right answer is, because you want to both make the process rewarding with COOL stuff, but never want someone to feel that something cool they WANT is unattainable. I will quietly take the 83% here as a sign that we did the best job we could have with designing the RP Player award track, though.

Similarly, 80% of members feel that their progress through the RP Player trophy was "Just Right", meaning we spaced things out fairly well it seems. Only a small percentage seemed to think they went through the ranks too fast, but we have been told by the GMs that we shouldn't overreact to small outliers. As for the few that felt that they were progressing too slow...I hear you, and your opinion has not fallen on deaf ears, I promise.

Annonmyous Feedback

Here are some pieces of feedback I wanted to share and respond to directly.

Marick owes me another rope sheet dance.

Goddamit Kamjin. Do you want fan art? Because that's how you get fanart.

I'm ending up getting stuck as forever DM. Every RP that is presented in the RP channel fills up before I ever even get a chance to join. It's great people want to join, but I personally feel excluded from being a player due to limited options of games to join.

This is actually something I personally feel as well. In my head, if we can get more DMs, that will allow those "always the DM" to have more chances to be just a player. I don't know how else to achieve this, but organically, the answer to me is "more people need to get confident enough to run RP".

I wish There was an easy "recap" area so people can get the gist of things happening in RP's they aren't in. It can feel almost... clique-ey. Where a group of people can stick together and bang out 4 rp's with massive developments that you miss out on totally.

So, I have some strong feelings on this that are a bit personal. Any group-project, wether it be in real life, the DB, or at your respective job, require you to be able to commit time and pay attention. While other players, or even the DM, can recap things for you, communication is so important in any kind of game. So while people can certainly do a better job of summarizing walls of text and posts are easy to fall behind on...reading is a big part of writing with others.

The inclusion of unsheeted and or multiple characters can make for a chaotic RP session that makes it difficult to follow along and participate in larger social RP sessions. Also credits are my motivation everyone knows that

I agree here. The Snapshot function is a really great addition! Keeping to 1-2 characters a player can also make things much easier to keep track of. That said, we want to make sure all kinds of characters have a space to be written and utilized, so I think it's still okay to have non-sheeted characters take part in things!

Having a society tied to this system is a bonus, in my opinion. As long as it's counting toward something, I think that's more than enough incentive to engage with it. Personally, I've been promoting this style of role-playing since I was a new member of the DJB, and I'm happy to see that it's finally taken off as more than just a side activity. It's my favorite way to do collaborative storytelling. If I can offer any criticism, it's that the gamey elements - dice rolls and such - could use a bit of fine-tuning or a design shift. While we've made it workable, I agree with those who suggest that our system wasn't made to be used like this, and I want to promote continued iteration to find the most satisfying way to handle risk-based moments in this type of storytelling.

I want to make sure I take a moment to acknowledge this piece of feedback, because I've seen or gotten it elsewhere outside of this survey. I agree. The "simplicity" of the popular D10 rolls + DB CS's can be a bit boring and seem low-stakes. For those that want "more", we do need to figure out creative ways to invent or scale mechanics for game-play sakes.

That said. The Brotherhood's CSs and Possessions systems are locked in as our source of truth. That is our Players Handbook. It would require completely re-doing things from scratch to make a "Dice-first" or "Tabletop" CS. Which, ironically, was CS's originally, and we made an intentional shift away from it.

So, the answer, imo, is still for us to create rulesets that can be used/adapted. Arch has mocked up Fate. Turel came up with a fun space-based combat ruleset. Grot managed to wiggle Blades in the Dark to semi-work.

I think that while a lot of people want a single, central "DB Tabletop Official 1st Edition" game, there's nothing stopping members from creating a document that adapts our CSs.

I'm happy to lend my insight to any of these projects, but ultimately, it's going to be up to members to work on these things.

DM Curious

While (19) members that took the survey said they've run an RP for the Brotherhood, (4) have not run one yet, but another (8) have not yet, but want to!

A small portion of DM-curious members (5) seem to be interested in working with the Exarch Staff to run DMs. I will be reaching out to each of these members to see if we can make that happen!

(3) members lead the results by mentioning that their biggest hurdle/feat is not confident in coming up with a story. I personally am glad to see this, as it's probably one of the easier fears the Exarch Team, or the DB as a whole, can actually help with. If you just need some help coming up with stories, just let us know! (@Exarch Staff)

A summary of the other responses members wrote-in:

I would just rather stick to being a player and trusting others to DM

Totally fair.

I wasn't aware we could just do that. Now that I think about it though, it makes sense.

And knowing is half the battle!

Not confident in coming up with a story, my ability to run a session, or picking whatever system to use (dice or no dice)

Again, just hit up the Exarch Staff. We're here to try and help with this!

Available Time to Prep and Run a session

Mood. I think this is just being aware of your bandwith and learning how to block out portions of time so you feel less overwhelmed.

‘Tism and social anxiety cause my stress to spike

This is harder to help with, but again a Co-DM might be the best way to tackle this.

Not sure how to use the Discord bot...

Spoiler on the last one: if you take the RP Exam, it goes over all the Discord bot functions ;)

All of these are going to be things I try to cover in my guide/exam.

DM Trophy Feedback

So, it seems that most participants (14)8 feel that the trophy progression is "good as it is". However, when looking at the other pieces of feedback, and respecting the *(4) members who think it's too slow, which is myself included.

(3) members then mentioned that they wished the awards from the DM Trophy were easier to get.

Participants were split very evenly when it came to answering if making the DM ranks "Easier" to get would motivate them to run more RPs.

With 31% saying that it would motivate them to run more RPs, it's something I want to focus on how we adjust going forward.

More definitively, a bulk (9) of those same members feel that the Trophy progression helps motivate them to run more RPs.

But also great is that the other half (9) are not motivated by the trophy and will run RPs regardless of what the Trophy-situation is!

The (1) participant who said that the "effort" isn't worth it hurts my heart, but I can't honestly disagree with it. One of my goals going forward will be to see how I can possibly fix that.

That said, 83% of those members, say that DM Trophy progression is fair. That doesn't mean that they don't think it could be changed, and a few members did express that they wished some were easier to get.

How to Help DMs

What has been the most challening part of trying to run an RP in the DB?

I know this section is going to be the roughest part of this analasys. But it's the area where I'm going to try my damnest to solve for to empower as many people to overcome these challenges.

Real life making it hard to keep up with your RP and finish it (13)

The most members listed this as a big challenge. This does not surprise me, and sadly, it's the one thing I don't think anyone in leadership in the DB can do much about. We are all at the mercy of real life schedules.

That said, my hope for this is that if we can teach time management skills, organization, and some communication tips/tricks can help combat this element.

Getting members to post (7)

I think this is also very tricky, as it's not something you as a DM can actually "fix". At a certain point, members need to be able to take accountability for their availability. And the only thing I can say to that is...communication. It's okay to set an expectation, up front that if members don't post, you will skip them, or fade them out, or auto-pilot them with consent, of course.

Not having enough time to finish your plan (5)

This one is actually what I run into every single RP. So I feel that. What I've learned, or leaned on I guess, is trying to become okay with knowing that if things start to lose interest, or time runs out, to just "find" a logical stopping point, and cut it off.

You can always spin up a sequel or follow up session. Or, save the idea for another time!

Making your ruleset work (4)

I get this. But I think this is also one of those things where members just need to understand that there is no "one way" to do RP in the DB. You get to decide how your "system" works, and having that freedom might seem scary when you're used to having a players handbook, but we want to keep RP fluid and flexible.

Timezones, members godmodding,

Timezones are always going to be challenging. Co-DMs and planning ahead can help. As for godmoding...

Water Temple (Zelda) them with a shadow-version of their character. Increase the DC-clearence. Make them roll more. But ultimately, just communicate.

Crippling imposter syndrome and poorly managed neurodivergency

That's rough buddy. Don't we all.

From the Feedback

A DM bootcamp might also be something to try and organize, maybe it'll lessen the load on the few people that put a lot of effort in.

This is on my list of things to try, once I finish the course notes I'm working on.

I wish DM'ing was a bit more rewarding than being a participant, just to incentivize more people to try it and also develop some empathy and respect for the frequent DM'ers. I think many are willing to participate in an RP without reward, but DMing needs more incentive.

I think this applies to all tabletop, really, and why people tend to flock to certain GMs "tables". I am open to more ways we can do this.

The Envoy Corps

Fortunately, a large majority of members know what the Envoy Corps is. Which means I guess I'm doing my job correctly. I also know that a few members intentionally took my bait for joke-answers (hi Alaisy). The one answer of "an envoy-what now?" was from a much newer member, which is something I would expect but hope we can slowly correct as we get better at onboarding new members.

Favorite Perks

Your favorite Envoy Corps trophy rewards/perks were:

• Envoy Essentials Kit / Messenger Bag (5)
• NPC Level up (4)
• CS Feats (3)
• +1 Lore/Language (2)
• Envoy Broach
• Dossier Title
• All of them
• Envoy Droid
• Envoy Badge
• Envoy Glasses
• XP

New Perks You Want to See

• Feats (14)
• More Possession Items (7) - spy gadgets, extra storage items
• More Lore/Languages (2)
• Envoy Protocol Droid
• Envoy Ship (not a ship person, but the gear cogs are turning!)

We will be considering all of these as we figure out things to do with either adding more rewards to the lower DM ranks, or by giving more post-rank-12 awards.

General Ideas

Create pre-built sessions for people who want to DM but don’t know how to create a fictional world/adventure to use to run.

I've actually already done this! If people are interested, I can make more!

Put misbehaving members on a bounty board...

Works for me!

I really wish the envoy corps would run more games for people to play in. Maybe limit the players to people who are below rank 5 or something. Above rank 5 you've done enough RPing elsewhere, you don't need the teacher lead game.

We're working on it, but again, the more DMs we get, the easier this will become.

Mawr credits

Do moar RPs then!

Lastly, I'm glad to see that no one seems to be against the Envoy Corps being featured in future Brotherhood Macro Plot. The Voice has told me all societies will start to be featured more, but we all know who his new favorite is. bats eyelashes

Voice Based RP

So this is something that I was actually surprised to see anyone dissent on, but it's good to know. It has been the single most asked for thing I've heard from both new, returning, and current members though. I really was hoping to show that this is something the DB, the GMs, and James coding efforts should invest in.

(16) members, though, are interested in Voice-based RP. (10) more are not interested personally, but think it's a good idea.

So that's a total of (26) members. This is a big deal. It's not a niche thing.

While only (14) members think (definitively) that Voice RP would be a recruiting vector for the club, I don't see how we can dismiss it.

Meanwhile, 43.8% felt that Voice RP could be a great recruiting vector for the DB. The larger half were unsure, which again, I get and my hope is that the Emissary team will see this at least and see there is potential in supporting this "game mode".

Voice RP Recorded Content for DB Social Media

Well, at least (13) of you are brave enough to go along with my idea of trying to do a live RP, record it, and put it up on social media. This could be a way to draw in interested RPers looking for a place to do RP, and takes advantage of the success of DnD play shows like Dimension 20 and Critical Role. I have no idea if it will work. I have no idea if I have the technical ability to pull it off. But I think it's worth trying at least.

Exarch Approval Rating

46.9% of members think Wally is doing a good job as Exarch.

Smartly, 53.1% of members agree that strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

No one said no, so I guess that's nice.

Putting it all together

exhales

So, I mostly focused here on replying directly to the survey. I'm going to be talking with the team, going over some ideas I have, and will share what we come up with based on all of this data.

Some quick thoughts:

• Decrease point threshold between DM Trophy ranks
• Award bonus/extra points for sessions that have 3+ more members in it. (This would still reward people for 1:1s, but give more reward for those that DM for multiple people in either social or adventure styled RPs, which take a lot more time and organization than those 2-player ones)
• Add more post Rank-12 rewards
• Finish DM Guide Course Notes to address roadblocks for DMs
• RP Templates (I started these but got no real feedback, so if interested let me know)
• Figure out how to get Voice RP counted towards the RP Society.

Thank you everyone who took a few minutes to fill out the survey. It will help, I think, continue our forward momentum and growth.

Helpful Resources

You can find everything you need in Roleplaying Handbook Wiki. This page hosts links to Exarch Resources such as maps, rulesets, system types, and information about Role Playing activities the Brotherhood.

Some useful pages to bookmark:

• Exarch Resources Google Drive Folder
• Envoy Corps Wiki
• Envoy Corps Trophy Rank Rewards Table
• Envoy Corps Items
• Envoy Corps CS Feats
• Character Sheet Reference Tool
• Roleplaying Handbook

Closing

TL;DR

• ACC-like Envoy Corps mission recap (2vE)
• Appius joins the Exarch Staff
• Survey Response/Analasys

Thanks for listening. Also, thanks to the Herald for getting us our own Envoy Corps-Exarch Report banner for the website. I have some ideas for that in the future, so stayed tuned. Until next time,

-W