Shattered Kingdoms

I think there's a dearth of strong players in leadership positions (both religion and cabal/tribunal). This makes for a less interesting MUD experience (IMO) because you need active, inclusive leaders (people like Smaggler, Bux, Finney, and Konstantin come to mind - Peso and Algon fit the bill also, controversial as they are) to really make things happen.

There are a lot of reasons that may explain why there are few good leaders out there (ratio of players to positions, burnout, etc.), but at least one is that some players choose not to take leadership positions because the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

Yes, there are some perks associated with leadership, tribunal leadership having the most (induct/uninduct, banish/pardon, immigrate/deport, seeing the tribunal account lists, declare war/truce), but most of these benefits affect everyone in the group. There's little personal gain associated with the post. In addition, many of these abilites are so restricted/policed in their use, that they're more of a hindrance than a help (e.g., the immigrate/deport policy - which I'm not arguing with) meaning leaders can't really use them to their advantage.

In exchange, leaders have to deal with whiny players and basically take care of a lot of "grunt" work (How does anyone ever decide to become an IMM?), making the whole proposition unappealing. Thus I think we should give leaders a perk for their effort, a carrot to bring and keep players there.

Some possible perks I was tossing around:
High Follower
* Flaming symbol has more enchants on it
* Flaming symbol can be affected by enchant armor
* Flaming symbol has minor script (e.g., armor or protection)

Tribunal Leadership
* Yearly stipend paid (~5 obsidian / year?)
* One law NPC can only be ordered by the leader

Cabal Leadership
* Leader uses cabal skills/spells for reduced ME/PE cost

I'm sure their are others that wouldn't bee too powerful but would still be a reasonable enticement.

Thoughts? Are others avoiding leadership positions like the plague, or is it just me?

One counter argument to all of this is that we don't want people choosing leadership just because of the benefits (i.e., so they can have another notch under their belt or one more leg up in PK against other players). You might even go so far as to say that by doing what I am suggesting, you'd widen the PK "achievement gap" between newbies and veterans, because veterans have a better shot at getting leadership.

In response, I'd say you're right, we don't want people choosing leadership solely for the benefits, but that we at least need to counterbalance all the grunt work leaders have to do and even things out. I'd also say that yes, you will widen the gap somewhat between newbies and vets in PK, but that's a price I, for one, am willing to pay to make the MUD more dynamic (I know, look at the vet willing to sacrifice the newbies, how magnanimous).

I want leader, but can't deal with the idiots who ARE leaders long enough to get it.

Leadership doesn't need any benefits. It already has enough.

I agree with Wickedwitch.

Leadership doesn't need any benefits; it needs less drawbacks.

While leadership is a chore, the way to encourage more leaders isn't by adding perks, but by finding other ways to tweak the system. What they are, I don't know offhand. But, I'll brainstorm and see what I can come up with.

sleeper

Achernar has put forward many amazing ideas in this vein.

Id like to see tribunals with a F2 type flag. Where a leader can give someone the power to pardon others. This would keep some of the hassle off of people always asking the leader.

I'd rather see a tribunal "F2" able to immigrate and deport people than pardon. They'd be harder to abuse by a person who plans to cause trouble.

Eh, I would see them as still able to be demoted though if they did.

Wow, it's tempting to respond to that. Instead I'll just say, <3 Syn, and leave it at that.