Our amazing and dedicated volunteers help bring Deadline to life.

📋 Staff Rules

We share this information with you because transparency is important to us.

• Staff will never have admin privileges on their personal characters.
• Staff must submit tickets the same way any player would for crafting requests, general concerns, raids, or other issues. Staff tickets are not prioritized and will be handled in the same order as all others, based on urgency and the availability of staff with the right expertise.
• Staff may not handle tickets for members of their own group unless supervised by Management.
• Staff must have their name visible in their Discord server profile at all times.

🕵️ Staff Perks

• All staff receive Great Supporter donor-level perks as recognition for their volunteer work. They are otherwise treated as regular players and must follow all standard requirements
• If a staff member makes an additional donation, they will be moved up to Epic Supporter level. Staff donor perks cannot be gifted or transferred to other players
• Staff often give up their own play time to help run major server-wide events, meaning their characters miss out on experiences all other players can experience. To keep things fair, staff will have access to the same types of rewards as player characters but only relating to server-wide events when they staff the event. This will not apply for small scale/personal/group events in any way. We will be using the following process:
  • Staff must open an Event ticket, tag Event Master and Management to oversee any rolls and reward distribution after the event has concluded. Only the character of the staff member assisting with the event running is eligible for the reward, they cannot designate another character to receive it instead.
  • If the event is an open trade event, staff can trade under the same rules as other players.
  • If the server-wide event gives guaranteed rewards to all participants, staff will receive the same reward for their character.
  • If the server-wide event event includes a chance at rewards, Event Master will determine a percentage chance for reward and roll in the ticket with the staff member.
  • If the server-wide event includes a chance of injury or permanent death, Event Master will also determine a percentage chance for injury and/or death and roll in a ticket with the staff member to apply to the staff member's character.

💭 Staff Guidelines

We were going to keep this as internal guidelines, but showing this to you will let you keep us honest and highlight how we intend to be different.

• Staff chat should be used for discussion about the game that cannot be had publicly. It shouldn't be a place to hang out and isolate yourself from the players. You shouldn't stream other games or play group games in the staff VC.
• Tickets should be handled in "First in, First out" order weighted to what the staff member can handle at the time. Tickets submitted by a staff member on their characters are just like any other ticket.
• Don't talk shit about players. Be civil about players, especially among other staff.
• VC is a fine tool, but it should never be the only means of communication. It can ostracize people in different time zones. All important discussions should be memorialized on the discord at the least, but discord conversations are preferable.
• If you engage with players in game fixing something, you don't exist in game. You're not a god or a ghost. Time pauses for them while you resolve things. Be aware of the character's surroundings (don't let them get eaten while you fix their skills from a bug), don't interrupt roleplay, and keep conversations quiet to not disturb other players. Do not break immersion by doing things like random huge zombie spawns for shock value or appearing visibly in an outrageous costume. Respect their time and get them back to play as quickly as you can.
• If you’re not feeling it, take a break. There’s no shame in it. We all need to do it at some time. Inactivity on staff without communication will be addressed, more out of a concern for you as a person, but we also need to consider whether any players are waiting on things from you or give you any help you need.

🪄 Staff Philosophy

This statement isn't just for staff but it's something all staff should be committed to delivering.

🏅 Teamwork

• Each of us is a teller of stories. Every staff member is equal and should be able to focus on doing what they enjoy. Obviously there are going to need to be people making decisions or spearheading certain things, but it's important that everyone be able to help the way they want and not be confined by hierarchies.
• Artificial divides between different staff roles (running events, lore, medical, etc.) can cause strife and for people to feel like their role isn't important or valued.
• Staff members can fill multiple roles based on what they enjoy doing. Generally, we are open to switching roles around or adding them temporarily as folks lives and the things they enjoy change. We do ask new folks to the team to show us their ability and commitment as Assists before we consider them as a Moderator or Event Storyteller. This fills an essential role but also gives a bird's eye view on how the team works together. Ultimately, no one is "just" anything as we all want to tell amazing stories with everyone.

📖 Story First

• Be a "Yes and" Storyteller and help people build stories, don't shut them down without very good reason.
• The characters are at the center of stories, not any NPCs. Avoid God Mode unless necessary.
• Allow players to improvise other solutions than you intended (if reasonable).

💬 Frequent Communication

• We will keep checking in with you about how things are going. You should always know where you stand with us directly. If we have a concern, we'll bring it up to you directly and have a frank conversation. We expect the same from you. If you haven't heard from someone on the Management team about something, reach out. We're human too and sometimes things get missed.
• It's okay not to know something or make a mistake. Say something and we'll fix it together.

⚖️ Fairness

• Treat players equally.
• Apply rules consistently.
• If you're upset or not capable of doing this in a situation, pass it to another Storyteller or Management.

⏱️ Valuing Your Time

• We want to have meetings when they're needed. We commit to never having a meeting longer than an hour and will make an effort to include as many people as possible.
• If you can't make a meeting, we'll send you the notes but your input is still valued. We can talk about anything missed.

🆕 Open to Experiments

We don't want to be stuck in "this is the way things work". Share your ideas and be open to change.

Sure, not everything's going to work, but we're experimenters. When you say to yourself "I wonder if we could...", don't keep it quiet. It might not be something we can do, but it might be a project we can look at for the future. Maybe it's something you've always wanted to try, but didn't know if it was possible.

Bonus points if you're willing to help make it a reality, even if you don't have the skills (yet) to achieve it.