modified_device | Core-Running 101

SCHEDULING/PLANNING YOUR EXPERIMENTS

☢ If you are planning to run a test, please announce it a day in advance on the OOC comm, and be sure to add it to the calendar. You should be given access to the calendar when your core is accepted.
☢ Don't schedule more than one gamewide event per week.
☢ If teams are hurting for points, however, you may give the team something they can do individually to make them up.
☢ If you're planning on something that's going to involve a lot of hands-on game-running, think about roping in another core player to help you.
☢ Be conscious of the fact that time can (and will!) get away from you. If at all possible, try to keep events to less than four hours at a time.
☢ They don't all have to be during weekends and they don't have to conform to any specific time zone! Smaller events for Australiasian/European time zones may require more coordination from players to find a time they can all make, but you are by no means discouraged from doing so.
☢ Keep an eye on the trauma level and player weariness when you are working on a game. There's no bad time for a hilarious game, but there may be one for a game of horror and doom . If you've just spent forever planning out a game, and everyone's smarting from last week, it is okay to move or swap with someone else.

POINTS & PRIZES

☢ In general, around 100 points is a good high score for winning teams or about 25 points for individually carried-out assignments
☢ Try to curve the points you're giving, but don't give a team 0 points if they participated (unless you're purposely bullying them, as is your prerogative as their robot superior).
☢ You may give out objects to teams that perform well, but if it's going to be something big (like a piece of furniture or something) limit it to one per test
☢ You may not give out cake or other tasty desserts

RUNNING A TEST

☢ If you're running something that requires a lot of setup/explanation/input from characters/etc, feel free to put in a pre-game mingle. You are not required to use a mingle, however!
☢ You may run any sort of event you like and dole out points however you see fit, with one exception: please don't assign winners by speed (which is to say, don't give it to a first commenter or the first team to finish a thread).
☢ You may find you'll have an easier time picking winners if you've decided on a set objective, but try to keep it simple. The last thing anyone wants (least of all you) is for you to be tallying stuff up for two hours trying to decide who won.
☢ If you start relevant new threads, link them from the main post.
☢ Some games will need locked posts! For those, use the journal testingphase (the password is provided upon acceptance). You may need to adjust the team filters if no one has recently.
☢ Don't hesitate to make a new post for endgame

THEMATIC NOTES

☢ Cores can play around and interact with subjects outside of testing. Assume they know jack squat about the plot.
☢ Cores aren't all-powerful. In fact, they're not powerful at all. They can only move along the guide-rail, and if they are taken off it, they can't move at all. It's in their own best interests not to let the subjects get a hold of them.
☢ Cores can use the screens, cameras, and the pneumatic delivery tubes. They cannot rearrange the lab but they can use pre-existing lab levels or petition GLaDOS to create a new one. This doesn't need to be done OOCly, but keep it in the back of your mind while planning.
☢ In fact, assume that GLaDOS has signed off on all experiments, usually while mercilessly mocking them.
☢ Don't add anything to the NPC journal that wouldn't actually be in the Enrichment Center.
☢ Don't feed the test subjects! They're just going to gum everything up with their filthy human fingers.
☢ Mary Sue is a slight exception to some of these rules because she is infected with a terrible virus that pulls other robots into her delusionary world. Being infected with Mary Sue's virus is optional and the effects will fade once the robot in question is no longer in contact with Mary Sue.
☢ Don't hesitate to ask if you're wondering whether a core can or can't do something!