How to Turn Over the Reigns

It is that time of year, the official launch of the boffer season for those of us that play Eldaraenth. As the guy in charge, I have to admit, that I’m a little nervous because this is the first event of our new National Story Marshal, and letting go of one of the responsibilities that has been weighing me down over the last couple of years has left me feeling more anxious that relieved.

Honestly, I shouldn’t be worried, I have faith in the new NSL and the other National Officers, but there is always a bit of worry when you let your baby go off into the hands of someone else. For the first time, I am really starting to understand the position our founders were in when I took over the game. Which leads me to the point of this week’s post:

How to Step Aside and Let Someone Else Do the Work

There are a lot of reasons you might need to step aside. If your game is growing (like mine is) you might need to take a more administrative role and have less direct involvement of the majority of the games day to day bureaucracy, or maybe you’re just worn out and need a good long break. The important thing is to recognize that you do need to step aside, and that there are ways that you can handle that smoothly.

1 – Find the Best Person for the Job

It’s important that you find someone who is capable, willing, and just as importantly willing to work with you. The better a relationship you have with this person, the better both of your lives will be. You need to trust them to do their job well, and force yourself to remember that if you didn’t trust them, you wouldn’t have given them the role in the first place.

2 – Make Sure They have What They Need

I’m going to admit to you all that I’m a little lacking in this. My new Story Marshal has asked me for quite a bit of information that she might need to run the story properly, and is only available inside my head. I have every intention of answering her questions because she does need that information, but something always seems to come between my intentions and my actions. For example, this blog post.

As a result she might be limited in what she was wanting to do with this weekend’s event.

I also have to admit that part of me is hesitant to turn over the entire world to her, and that has kept me back a bit. This is an issue I really need to get over, because:

3 – You Can’t Micromanage

I won’t be an effective game leader if I’m spending my time trying to do the jobs of my officers instead of my own. That means I need to get over the hang ups I might have with giving editorial control to the new person. This is especially stupid in my case because the person in question is probably also the person with the most knowledge of my vision of the world outside of myself and the game’s Head Game Designer.

Besides, 10 years under me has gotten a little stale, so it is time to let the world have a breath of fresh air so to speak.

4 – Concentrate on What YOU Need to Be Doing

There is a reason you have passed the torch, so focus on that. If you are just stepping down to enjoy playing, go play, if you’re stepping down to focus on developing mechanics or putting out fires, then you should do that.

Focus on what needs your attention, and before you know it, you won’t even have time to worry about what the new person is doing.

5 – Enjoy Helping Someone Else Shine

There is a definite feeling of accomplishment to helping someone else step up and take a bigger role.

That’s one of the founding ideals of the boffer tradition in Eldaraenth. We strive to make each other not just better fighters, but better leaders, woodsman, craftsmen and people.

Enjoy the fact that this is one way you can spread that tradition to more than just combat.

 

Take it easy this weekend. I’ll be back next week, hopefully not injured or too terribly sore from shaking off the winter rust.