A faction of a hundred people can be run by one person shouting, or by a structure. We chose the structure — and the whole point of writing it down is that you can see where a decision came from, and where you would have to stand to make one.
- The R is not a rank. It is a bill: the higher it is, the more you owe the team.
- R4 and R5 lead together. Decisions come out by consensus.
- The council sets the direction; each shell's R4s run it.
- Any member can become an R4 — and you are allowed to ask.
Who decides
The R is not a rank, it is a bill
Here everyone is equal, whatever the number next to their name. What the number changes is what is expected of you: the higher the R, the greater the sacrifice. Nobody in this faction gets to be senior and comfortable at the same time.
R4 and R5 lead together
The game gives the R5 buttons the R4 does not have. We do not run the team on that. Between an R4 and an R5 there is no difference of authority here: decisions are taken by consensus and by common sense, and a decision that needed rank to be accepted was a bad decision.
The council sets the direction
The council is the R4s and the R5 of the main shell, plus the R5s and some of the R4s of the secondary shells. It works out the general guidelines — how the team is shaped, where it is going, what the season is for — and hands them to the leaders of every shell, who run them. Direction comes down; what the shells need goes back up. Nothing useful happens if only one of those two arrows works.
Subgroups do the work that has a name
Some work is too specific to belong to everybody. It goes to a subgroup, and a subgroup has a person answering for it. Two kinds: the ones that serve the whole team — strategy, recruiting, the general coordination of fights — and the ones each shell runs for itself, like events and member management.
How you become one
Any member is a potential R4
Not the biggest accounts. Not the oldest members. We look for people who can manage, who can talk to members and understand what they need, and who are willing to spend the time. Influence is the least interesting thing about a leader.
Know what you are asking for
An R4 spends hours a day on the team: improving it, organizing events, studying the opponents and the battlefields, working out the odds of a fight we have not had yet. All of it unpaid, and all of it on top of a life.
It is like a second job
If you want it, say so
You do not have to wait to be noticed. Tell an R4 that you want to help — with recruiting, with events, with calling a fight — and you will be given something to carry. That is the whole selection process: people who asked, and then did it.
One band, one song.