Crewing

The Social Season intends to make use of crew to assist the GM in running the game. Crew will play a variety of NPCs with determined character goals and/or tasks to carry out at points throughout the game. NPCs will be assigned to crew in line with their preferences, wherever possible, and crew are encouraged to make their characters their own. The role of crew in The Social Season is primarily to enhance player experience by allowing the world to be populated with more interesting characters and giving the opportunity for more player-created NPCs from backstories to feature in Uptimes and Downtimes. Crew will receive a briefing from the GM ahead of each session detailing which NPCs they will be playing that turn, their character goals, and the game-running purpose to be fulfilled by each character.

Crew can be in-person or online, although the GM has more demand for in-person crew. Crew do not need to attend every session, can specify their desired number of NPCs, and will not necessarily be expected to do much emailing between sessions - the character creation form allows prospective crew to inform the GM about the level of commitment and availability they can give to the game, and the GM will try to accommodate as many crew as possible. As explained more on the Ballot page, more crew enables the player cap of the game to expand.

Crew do not submit Turnsheets, receive write-ups or, generally, write any Turnsheets. However, if a Turnsheet submission features a crew NPC heavily, the crew member will be offered the opportunity to write that Turnsheet (although they are by no means expected to). Crew can also read Turnsheets which feature their NPCs. As crew are contributing to running the game, they do not need to pay to attend sessions. Crew are also welcome to learn whatever secrets about the world of the game they wish to, although they will not have the GM power of reading all emails sent in the game.

The GM will try to accommodate crew preferences about the actions or fate of their NPCs, if possible, but ultimately crew NPCs are a game-running tool used by the GM to improve the quality of the game for players. If a participant in The Social Season would prefer a high level of control and autonomy over their character, it is recommended that they join the game as a player rather than crew.

This information is summarised below, to enable participants to make the best choice about whether they should play or crew.